Maggotty, St Elizabeth – With rumours of an increase in HIV/AIDS cases in some St Elizabeth high schools, the parish’s health department this week visited the Maggotty High School in an attempt to clear the air.

According to health educator Caple Taylor, the statistics do indicate that there is a slight increase in the number of AIDS cases in the parish. But the increase, he stressed, was similar to that seen in other parishes across the island and there was no indication that HIV/AIDS was spreading in any St Elizabeth schools.

Taylor has urged persons responsible for spreading the rumour to desist from doing so.

In his address, he urged students who engage in promiscuous behaviour to change their action before it is too late, and also called on male teachers and cabbies to protect students and not treat them as sexual objects.

The parish’s health team also pledged to work with schools, community groups and other organisations to remove the stigma attached to some area schools.

Students, Taylor said, had their part to play. He urged them to resist the urge to engage in sexual behaviour over the summer holidays, and repeated facts about the transmission of the disease.

“HIV/AIDS is not transmitted by casual contact,” he said. “There are no cases of persons getting this disease by kissing, hugging, sharing glasses, using telephones or through any of the regular household or work experiences.

HIV is primarily transmitted through unprotected sex.”

He told the students that they could reduce their chances of getting sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV, by:

. not putting themselves at risk of unwanted pregnancies through unsafe sexual practices;

. resisting peer pressure to have sexual intercourse;

. always using a latex condom when having sex, and using it correctly;

. abstaining from sex.