Are you in the mood for expressing love, sharing gifts, splurging on romantic high-calorie dinners as ways to celebrate Valentine’s Day? While these are great, there is, however, cause for caution.
With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, the tendency for increased sexual activities, excessive alcoholism, drug abuse, incidences of rape, and the tendency to be exposed to HIV is very high.
If you really want to impress your date this Valentine’s Day, protect their health and yours by getting tested.
Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are an indicator of high risk sexual behaviour and increase the chance of HIV transmission.
Despite recent progress in the prevention of HIV/AIDS, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) in Nigeria says that 3.2 percent of the adult population or an estimated 3.4 million Nigerians live with HIV. Nigeria has the second largest HIV epidemic in the world.
On the other hand, only 26.3 percent of Nigerians have ever been tested for HIV, with more female (29.2 percent) than males (23.5 percent).
As such, experts are calling for caution in this season of love.
“Particularly on this one day, there is a spike in sexual activities and people should not act from a place of ignorant and naivety, they are well informed of what one night stand could propel for them as whole,” said Doyin Odunbanjo, a public health expert.
“There is not point getting carried away on one night and discovering the course of your life has been altered completely.It is about education; we need to put information out there so that people do not lose their health because it is Valentine season,” he said.
Available information on HIV/AIDS suggests some tips that can help reduce the risk of contracting HIV:
1. Get tested and know your partner’s HIV status. Talk to your partner about HIV testing and get tested before you have sex.
2. Have less risky sex. Oral sex is much less risky than anal or vaginal sex. Anal sex is the most risky type of sex for HIV transmission.
3. Use condoms. Use a condom correctly every time you have vaginal, anal, or oral sex.
4. Limit your number of sexual partners. The more partners you have, the more likely you are to have a partner with HIV whose HIV is not well controlled or to have a partner with a sexually transmitted disease (STD). Both of these factors can increase the risk of HIV transmission. If you have more than one sexual partner, get tested for HIV regularly.
5. Get tested and treated for STDs. Insist that your partners get tested and treated too. Having an STD can increase your risk of becoming infected with HIV or spreading it to others.
6. Talk to your health care provider about pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). PrEP is an HIV prevention option for people who don’t have HIV but who are at high risk of becoming infected with HIV. PrEP involves taking a specific HIV medicine every day. PrEP should always be combined with other prevention options, such as condoms.
7. Don’t inject drugs. But if you do, use only sterile drug injection equipment and water and never share your equipment with others.
