In addition to revelry, Carnival is also a time to raise awareness about sexually transmitted infections.
A CNN Radio infectologist Álvaro Furtado da Costa explained that the nomenclature IST is adopted instead of STD (sexually transmitted diseases) because it is more comprehensive.
“Many infections are asymptomatic and diseases presuppose that there are symptoms, so the new name seeks to encourage people to test themselves.”
According to the doctor, people do not think about STIs outside of Carnival: “We talk little about something that is a global public health problem, there are 360 million cases every year.”
The specialist said that Carnival increases the vulnerability of contracting syphilis, gonorrhea, hepatitis or even HIV.
“It is important to bring general prevention concepts, in addition to condoms, which are excellent.”
According to him, “there is regular testing, in addition to vaccines available in the National Immunization Plan, such as those against Hepatitis and HPV.”
“There are also powerful HIV prevention strategies, such as pre-exposure prophylaxis, PREP, and post-exposure, PEP.”
How, then, to define prevention and protected sex? “All tools are important, in addition to each person’s ability to use the tools, the current model of so-called combined prevention, in which the individual chooses the best method.”
The infectologist lamented the difficulty of talking about prevention clearly, especially in schools.
“There is a lot of judgment, as if it were the worst thing, and young people are afraid to catch it and even to test it, it is difficult to reach goals, that is why we have a bad number of cases and lack of communication on the subject”, he concluded.
*Produced by Bruna Sales
Source: CNN Brasil
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