BEIJING,
Jun 27 (Xinhuanet) -- Los Angeles County launched a campaign against
sexually transmitted diseases by using drink coasters, murals,
sidewalk chalk art and other unconventional approaches Tuesday.
The campaign is to combat rising rates of sexually
transmitted diseases like syphilis, chlamydia and gonorrhea, targeting at gay,
bisexual men, African American women and Latinas.
The county will spend 1.3 million U.S. dollars in
efforts to reach "people who are not going to be watching mainstream television
or reading the newspapers," according to Dr. Jonathan Fielding, director of the
county Department of Public Health.
In Los Angeles, over 30,000 women get chlamydia every
year, and syphilis in homosexual and bisexual men increased 365
percent between 2001 and 2005.
Although the county Board of Supervisors ordered a
campaign last year, "it hasn't made the kind of progress that we absolutely need
to make," said Fielding.
Craig E. Thompson, executive director of AIDS Project
Los Angeles, praised the new campaign as being "sexier" and more likely to
capture people's attention than the previous effort.
"We go from campaign to campaign," Thompson said.
"Maybe we get people's attention for a while, then we don't have anything out
there."
Michael Weinstein, president of AIDS Healthcare
Foundation, also praised the new campaign and hoped that the county can set up a
system in which every sexually active person gets screened at least every six
month. กก
(Agencies)
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