Sex can be risky business

News Release
NWHU

The Northwestern Health Unit’s Sexual Health, Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD) and HIV programs are launching a „Risky Business‰ health promotion campaign in May to raise awareness about:
· Chlamydia, an STD;
· the need for consistent condom use; and
· the ways risky behaviours, such as drinking and drug use, can impact decisions made about safer sex practices.
The World Health Organization (WHO) identified the top ten major health risks in the world in a report released in October 2002. Unsafe sex was number two on the list. High rates of unplanned pregnancies and STDs such as Chlamydia, the most common STD in Northwestern Ontario, continue to result from unprotected oral, anal and vaginal sexual contact.
Risky behaviours, such as alcohol and drug use, can greatly influence the decisions individuals make about condom use and safer sex practices. The campaign will provide health promotion items with information targeting young adults who attend local bars. In all eleven of our communities, we are partnering with local establishments to display trivia question tent cards and coasters on every table. Posters will be displayed in bathrooms advertising the availability of urine testing for some sexually transmitted diseases.