A Few Words About Basic Health

A person's good health means more than just avoiding HIV/AIDS. Although the YAM concentrate efforts on Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STIs), it's important to realize that people die from other diseases, not AIDS. AIDS is a disease that basically "opens the door" for all other diseases to attack the human body... No one actually dies from AIDS but rather as a result of AIDS.

A healthy lifestyle is essential for avoiding all diseases. A healthy lifestyle is a more fundamental focus of DPPA and YAM, including but not limited to: sex education, domestic violence, gender equality, and birth spacing.

A healthy lifestyle begins at home. Parental violence, for whatever reason, can lead to a child developing a variety of unhealthy habits ranging from drug use, sexual and other misconduct, and a lifetime unbroken cysle of abuse to others.

Sex education in schools, as well as at home, is essential to preventing or breaking poor habits that may spread and lead to an overall unproductive and harmful lifestyle.

Gender equality means the ability for both sexes to confront sexual issues without inhibition by the other sex towards their decisions. In the Caribbean, and indeed world-wide, girls must be more edept to taking over their own decisions regarding their sexual lives.

Birth spacing is an effective method of providing the best health and life of mothers, fathers and thier children. Without family planning and education, even the best lives can quickly and easily be confronted with a much harsher future.

YAM is part of the solution and outreaches its message throughout the country to those who need it most.

STD prevention

STDs are preventable. All it takes for most people is knowledge, application, and discussion. What does that mean?

There are many ways of preventing STDs, but it all starts with knowledge and discussion. Depending on your age, there are excellent resources to turn to for more information on how to prevent STDs from infecting you:

Parents, Teachers, Nurses and Doctors, a variety of Planned Parenthood organizations, and of course, the internet.

Talk to them about what the best options are for you. For all people, abstinance from sex is 100 % effective for preventing STD infections. For most, condoms are an effective means at about 98 % effective if used properly everytime.

Knowledge and discussion allone are not enough. Every person must follow up by applying what they learned to their lives. Condoms are very useful, inexpensive, and easy to find in most places, but are only effective if used properly each and every time you have sex.

Other methods of STD prevention are female condoms called diaphrams and just simple abstinance. Contraceptives include birth control but birth controls are not all used for STD prevention. Birth controls that do not prevent STDs include pills, insertable drugs, and creams. The " rythm " method of sex without condoms may reduce the chances of unwnted pregnancies but is far from adequate for STD prevention.

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Living with STDs

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) has reported that over 34,000,000 people world-wide are currently living with HIV/AIDS. That number is staggering, but only a fraction of all the sexually transmitted diseases people are infected with today, AIDS is just one of them. If you have AIDS or any other STD, remember, you are not alone!

AIDS is a progressive disease. When a person is infected with the HIV virus, it may take many months or perhaps years for a person to develop AIDS symptoms. That is why it is essential for everyone who has exposed themselves to HIV/AIDS (via the methods described) to be tested on a regular basis to prevent the spread as well as start treatment.

Although there is still no cure for HIV/AIDS, there are now a few treatments called antiretrovirals. Antiretrovirals are not a cure! They are very effective in reducing the virus to low levels, for those infected to live normal lives; However, although HIV/AIDS cannot survive outside our bodies, it is a very strong disease in those infected and is able to mutate in response to antiretroviral treatments.

For a list of STDs, please see the FAQ page.