Canada: Young Adults, Teens Urged to Adopt Safe Sex Policy

With the hope of reducing high rates of sexually transmitted disease among local youth, the Saskatoon Health Region has launched a new public awareness campaign urging people who have had unprotected sex to get tested. Until March 14, posters with the slogan, "Unsafe Sex Can Mess Up More Than Just Your Bed" will appear in 100 city buses and on two bus tailboards.

"With the rates of chlamydia in Saskatchewan being double the national average, it was important to us to launch an awareness campaign" targeted at the 15- to 24-year-old population, said Pamela de Bruin, healthy lifestyle supervisor with the region's sexual health program. "The main message we wanted to send out is, 'You had unprotected sex. Get tested, because [sexually transmitted infections] are happening to people like you, right here in Saskatchewan.'"

Chlamydia rates in Saskatchewan are nearly double the Canadian average, 309.2 per 100,000 compared to 161 per 100,000, respectively. De Bruin said it is unclear why Saskatchewan has a high chlamydia rate.

Launched by the Sexual Health-Public Health Services, the posters "are part of a comprehensive strategy to reduce rates of chlamydia among young people living in Saskatoon Health Region," said Dr. Stephen Whitehead, deputy medical health officer.

More than 500 Saskatoon youth, the majority ages 15-19, helped develop the poster campaign. "We asked them, 'Where would you most likely see it?' And they told us buses," said de Bruin. She added that a bus campaign was effective in terms of cost "because buses go everywhere."

Back to other news for December 19, 2003