Talking about safe sex ‘does not promote sex’

NST PUTRAJAYA: Not talking about safe sex will not stop young adults from having sex, so why not talk about it?
Director-General of Health Tan Sri Dr Ismail Merican said that while we were still conservative about discussing these issues, not doing so would only lead to bigger problems.
A recent study by Universiti Teknologi Mara lecturer Mazlin Mohamad Mokhtar found that half the young adults aged 18 to 25 were likely to be having sex. Eighty per cent did not use contraceptives.
Dr Ismail said sex should be discussed openly, because like it or not, young adults were going to engage in premarital and unprotected sex.
"They do it anyway. Talking about taking precautions is not encouraging them to have sex," he said.
He made it clear that whoever was "eligible" (to have sex) must practise safe sex.
"And the operative word is ‘eligible’," he stressed.
He added that society had become more open to discussing these issues, which was also why the Health Ministry provided stewardship for condom distribution and needle and syringe exchange programmes to contain the spread of HIV among drug users.
"These are taboo subjects, but we decided that we had to put aside conservatism in the larger interest of ensuring a healthy community," he said.
Education about safe sex can also go a long way towards reducing the spread of sexually transmitted infections (STI).
Dr Ismail said: "The most troublesome, the most menacing, the most critical right now is HIV/AIDS, and most people are aware of what we have done to combat it. We can use the same model for other STIs."
Apart from HIV, some common STIs are gonorrhoea, syphilis, herpes, candidiasis, chlamydia, genital warts and mycoplasma genitalium. Symptoms for many STIs include discharge, an unpleasant odour, pain when urinating, itchiness and redness.
"STIs are a lifestyle disease. As long as people have more than one sexual partner, there may be a problem because they are at risk," he said.
Dr Ismail’s advice to those who feel they may be at risk was to go for testing.
If left untreated, STIs can have serious consequences. Gonorrhoea, for example, can cause infertility and untreated syphilis can lead to chest pains and dementia.