EXPERT WARNS: SEX ON THE MIND KILLS

With 40 percent of TT’s youths dying of AIDS, a US doctor has warned that if the “sex on the brain” attitude continues, the Caribbean will be the same as sub-Saharan Africa—which has the highest prevalence of HIV.  The Caribbean currently ranks second. Dr Deregal Burbank, medical advisor in the Louisiana Governor’s programme on abstinence made these remarks as she outlined the epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases in the aftermath of the sexual revolution. Speaking to scores of secondary school children at the abstinence rally hosted by the Education and Health Ministries at the Queen’s Park Oval yesterday, Dr Burbank said prior to the sexual revolution, one in every 300 people (or 700,000 people) in the US had an STD.  At the time Syphilis and Gonorrhoea were the main STDs. Today, one in every four people in the US (68 million Americans) has an STD. There are 25 new causes of STDs. Many of them do not have symptoms.

“People who have sex with someone who has no rash, discharge, no bad smell, that may be the person they get five or six STDs of the 25.” She said 67 percent of all new STDs occur in the 15-24 age group. Burbank said most STDs are contracted by young people with multiple sexual partners. The more you get around the more you are going to get.” Risky sexual behaviour and using “opportunities” to have sex are also contributing to the high rate of infection. Although condom use has been promoted to prevent STDs, Burbank said they gave a false sense of security because some STDs are spread by “skin to skin” contact including the human papilloma virus (HPV). There are 5.5 million cases annually in the US. Burbank also highlighted the adverse consequences of premarital sex with the warning that it lead to poverty, decreased marital stability, increased domestic violence, and “decrease the likelihood of getting promotion.”