SEXUAL HEALTH AWARENESS WEEK
Monday 1 December – Sunday 7 December Ireland’s first ever Sexual Health Awareness Week, organised by Dublin AIDS Alliance, the Irish Family Planning Association and Durex, will run from 1-7 December 2003.

Sexual Health Awareness Week will highlight the importance of using condoms and the protection they offer against HIV, sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and unplanned pregnancy.
Promotional events around the country will be supported by thousands of educational posters, leaflets and resource packs produced by campaign organisers Durex.

Catherine Heaney, IFPA chief executive, said: "Promoting good sexual health is a fundamental component in any strategy to reduce rates of sexually transmitted infections and crisis pregnancy.
“Ireland's STI screening and treatment facilities are currently under huge strain because of the demand for services. While increased facilities are urgently required, efforts to prevent infection in the first place are equally, if not more, important.

“This Sexual Health Awareness Week is a welcome step forward. But if the week is to be a real and continued success in the future, initiative and buy-in will be required from the Government and all of the statutory agencies which are charged with responsibilities in the area of sexual health.”

Ann Nolan, Dublin AIDS Alliance executive director, has also welcomed this initiative stating: “The number of people testing HIV positive is increasing on an annual basis, with sexual transmission constituting the primary mode of infection worldwide. Currently, condoms provide the only means through which sexual transmission of the HIV virus may be prevented, and there is a responsibility to ensure that they are made widely and freely available in places where young people congregate.

“In promoting Sexual Health Awareness Week, Dublin AIDS Alliance wishes to raise awareness of HIV while encouraging safer sexual negotiation and practice. However, the future success of this initiative is heavily dependent of the commitment of Government to put HIV awareness and sexual health on the political agenda.”

Zoe Lawrie, Durex marketing manager, said: “Events such as Sexual Health Awareness Week are essential in providing support and information to healthcare professionals, enabling them to deliver key safer sex messages to young people. We’re delighted to be working with Dublin AIDS Alliance and the IFPA on such an important campaign.”

From 11 November 2003, Internet users can log onto www.durex.ie to access additional information about the week.

For further information, please contact:
Farrah Stevens or Louise Gray on 00 44 1353 669939
farrah.stevens@myriadpr.com; louise.gray@myriadpr.com

Delivering the Safer-sex Message on Irish AIDS Day 2003
Dublin AIDS Alliance, will distribute condoms, safer sex information, and red ribbons throughout the city on Friday, 13th and Saturday, 14th June 2003. This initiative is sponsored by Durex. At both the GPO and Stephen’s Green on Saturday, Sperm-men i.e. grown men dressed in suits fashioned like sperm, will add the fun to an otherwise important prevention message.

Dublin AIDS Alliance has a long history of HIV prevention and sexual health promotion. This year, to mark Irish AIDS Day, we are taking our prevention message to the general public. While our primary aim is to engage the public in an awareness of both HIV and sexual health, Dublin AIDS Alliance is also asking the people of Dublin to wear a red ribbon in solidarity with the 2,645 people affected by HIV in Ireland (2001 statistics – National Disease Surveillance Centre). Due to the Public Health Specialist’s dispute, updated statistics relating to HIV transmission rates are unavailable. However, empirical evidence suggests a marked increase in the number of people testing HIV+,
a trend that is consistent with previous years.

Dublin AIDS Alliance requests media support for this public awareness initiative, in order to increase national awareness of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections in Ireland. Furthermore, at a time when our core funding has been cut by the Northern Area Health Board and cost of living increases are placing a huge strain on our ability to deliver services, we need public backing to enable our ongoing support of people living with and affected by HIV, while promoting safer sexual health in the general population.

Dublin AIDS Alliance – Draft Statement SHAW Launch 2003
The number of people testing HIV + is increasing on an annual basis,
to the extent that one person is now diagnosed HIV positive in Ireland every day. The latest data available from the National Disease Surveillance Centre suggest a 22% increase in the number of people testing positive in 2002 when compared with the previous year.
Sexual transmission of the HIV virus is now the primary mode of transmission reported in Ireland, constituting 76% of all new cases diagnosed in 2002.

While Ireland currently lacks the results of a National Sexual Attitudes and Behaviour Study, smaller research programmes conducted periodically among young populations reveal a high level of general knowledge about HIV (and by that I mean that most participants of all age groups surveyed, were aware of HIV), however, a high level of particular ignorance is equally prevalent.

Misinformation ranges from a belief that the pill can provide protection against HIV, to incorrect assumptions around the possibility of being able to identify a HIV+ person by appearance. ‘Magical thinking’ and ‘it-won’t-happen-to-me-because-I-don’t-sleep-around’ concepts are also prevalent thus precluding safer sexual negotiation and condom use with partners.

Anecdotal evidence compiled by DAA’s Prevention & Training team further support these findings. Condoms, if correctly used, provide the only form of protection against sexual transmission of the HIV virus.
For this reason, Dublin AIDS Alliance is very happy to promote Sexual Health Awareness Week with our partners, the Irish Family Planning Association and Durex. This initiative provides a first step towards raising awareness of the importance of sexual health as an integral part of overall health and well-being.

As part of our public awareness strategy, Dublin AIDS Alliance in partnership with the Irish Association of Overseas Development Organisations will seek to engage the general public in awareness of World AIDS Day with a street carnival that will pass throughout the streets of city centre Dublin tomorrow. This initiative is sponsored by Development Co-operation Ireland and the Health Promotion Unit.
While asking Dublin shoppers to wear the red ribbon as a symbol of their solidarity and support for the 40 million people living with HIV/AIDS globally, Dublin AIDS Alliance will also distribute condoms and sexual health information in the promotion of Sexual Health Awareness Week.

Furthermore, the International Federation of Medical Student Association, Ireland, in collaboration with DAA will promote this initiative while raising awareness of HIV/AIDS throughout Dublin on Sunday, 30th and Monday, 1st December

Irelands first Sexual Health Awareness Week is an initial but important step towards challenging the silence and the stigma that frequently prevents open discourse about HIV, STI’s, sexuality and sexual health.
The next step will require Government involvement if we are to reduce the number of people testing HIV+, promote wider access to condoms and facilitate safer sexual negotiation and practice nationwide.

Kader Asmal, Education Minister in South Africa is quoted as saying that “In the absence of a cure the only vaccine we have against HIV/AIDS is education. This is the social vaccine”.

Dublin AIDS Alliance calls on Minister Micheál Martin to invest support in Sexual Health Awareness Week and further to increase resources urgently required if we are to successfully prevent the spread of HIV and other STI’s in Ireland.

ORGANISATIONS UNITE TO INCREASE AWARENESS OF AIDS CRISIS

The forthcoming annual World AIDS Day will be marked on Saturday 29th November by Dóchas (the Irish association of development organisations*) and Dublin AIDS Alliance.

A range of activities have been planned for the day which have been sponsored by Development Co-operation Ireland and the Health Promotion Unit:

The Lord Mayor of Dublin , Cllr Royston Brady, will kick start activities by pinning on his ‘red-ribbon’, which is the international symbol of support in the fight against AIDS. This will take place at 10am (29.11.03) at the main gates to Stephen’s Green (Grafton Street entrance). A giant ribbon will be mounted over these gates.

Throughout the remainder of the day, volunteers distributing postcards, information, balloons and flags on the streets of Dublin. A band of drummers will lead the volunteers.

The aim of Saturday’s events are to raise public awareness and understanding of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in an effort towards accelerating the global response in support of the infected and affected everywhere.

Executive Director of Dublin AIDS Alliance, Ann Nolan has stated that, “In addition to raising public awareness of the global HIV/AIDS pandemic with our Dochas partners on Saturday, 29th Dec., Dublin AIDS Alliance will distribute condoms and safer sex information as part of Irelands first Sexual Health Awareness Week launched by Dublin AIDS Alliance, Durex and the IFPA on Friday 28th December.

Sexual transmission of the HIV virus constituted 76% of all cases diagnosed in Ireland throughout 2002, and we are calling on the Irish public to wear the red ribbon in solidarity with those living with and affected by HIV/AIDS Worldwide, while also taking steps to inform and protect themselves.”

For further comment, contact Ann Nolan: 087 241 5286
World AIDS Day will fall on Monday, 1st December.

Contact Siobhan O’Dowd, World AIDS DAY 2003 Coordinator,
087 9185355

Among the Dóchas member organisations participating in this event will be: Action Aid, Aidlink, Christian Aid, Comhlamh, Concern, Goal, Gorta, HDN, IFPA, Oxfam, Refugee Trust, Trocaire, and World Vision Ireland.