The Ministry of Health and Social Development on Thursday, July 18, 2024, launched a campaign dubbed ‘Wrap it Up’, aimed at bringing awareness of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in the [British] Virgin Islands. Photo: aids.about.com

The 'Wrap It Up Before You Wuk It Up' Campaign aims to bring awareness about STI & promote social responsibility for Emancipation Festival. Photo: GIS

The ‘Wrap it Up’ campaign, according to Acting Chief Medical Officer, Dr Ronald E. Georges, is an expansion of what the ministry started last year to catch people’s attention about the consequences of high-risk sexual behaviours. Photo: GIS/File

The campaign, according to a press release from the Ministry of Health and Social Development, also aims to promote a message of social responsibility for the Emancipation Festival.

The ‘Wrap it Up’ campaign, Acting Chief Medical Officer Dr Ronald E. Georges commented, is an expansion of what the ministry started last year to catch people’s attention about the consequences of high-risk sexual behaviours.

“STIs are here, people get infected, they are potentially very serious, but the key thing to note is that they are preventable and treatable,” Dr Georges said.

'Wrap it Up Before you Wuk it Up'

Dr Georges stressed that the best treatment for STIs is to never get them and so urges everyone to “Wrap it Up Before you Wuk it Up.”

The campaign therefore will address a wide cross-section of the community with key assertive graphics that target all persons, especially the younger population.

“We have to speak to our audience in a meaningful way. Those messages are speaking directly to our younger demographic and to an audience we think is especially at risk,” Dr Georges added.

In efforts to reach other sectors of the population during the campaign, mediums will be used to include other types of messaging and forums such as audio and video interviews, radio commercials, newsletters, and press releases.

The issues being addressed are drinking and driving, mixing medicines with alcohol, age of consent, issues around consent, and reducing highly risky sexual behaviours.

Meanwhile, some local laboratories have come on board with special promotions on STI testing for the community.

“The labs will be doing their independent advertising surrounding their promotions, but we do want persons to take advantage of the opportunity and get testing so that they can know the status of their sexual health,” Dr Georges advised.