North Carolina Stylists Spread Word About Sexually Transmitted Diseases

For almost four years, the nonprofit Chatham Social Health Council in Chatham County, N.C., has organized a program that distributes information on STDs through barber shops, beauty shops, churches, stores -- all areas of social interaction in the black and Latino communities. Coordinators train 15 barbers, beauticians and other volunteers on facts about diseases, and the volunteers pass along the information to patrons and neighbors. The hope is that the condoms and education provided by volunteers can curtail risky behavior and reduce the spread of disease among the two groups, which are disproportionately affected by AIDS nationwide.

AIDS cases are relatively low in Chatham County -- only four people were diagnosed in 1999 -- but infection from STDs still poses problems. There were major outbreaks of syphilis in 1993 and 1999, said council Executive Director Holly Baddour. African-Americans in the county tend to have more chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis and HIV than other groups.

Efforts similar to Chatham's are underway elsewhere in the United States and in Wake, Durham and Alamance counties in North Carolina. Concentrating on places like barber shops -- where locals have long congregated to share gossip and stories -- is ideal, said Caressa McLaughlin, a health educator who oversees such a program for Durham County's Project Straight Talk.

Because people may be intimidated by health clinics, the program provides an essential link by using a person known in the community who can influence behavior and break through codes of silences and taboos, Baddour said. "We focus on the quality of the interaction," she said. "We don't want to hand somebody a condom and say, 'Good luck.'" Adolfo Aguilar, a Siler City Spanish radio show host and domestic violence worker, said that the program is effective because customers will quickly identify with someone of their own race and culture.

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