A leading public health nurse wants parents to step up the conversation on sexual health with young people amid concerns of continuing ignorance and risky behaviour.

Kim Ball, the HIV coordinator for the Department of Health, said casual attitudes were contributing to the Island’s HIV rate — noting that of the 301 people on the Island recorded as living with Aids or HIV, 233 contracted the conditions as a result of sexual contact.

She said parents and other role models played a key role in safeguarding children’s future sexual health, and should not wait for them to learn these things in school.

“It’s important to talk about it,” Ms Ball told ‘The Royal Gazette’. “I’m always happy when I see that it is being highlighted because people take it too casually and it’s thought that because we don’t talk about it everyday, it doesn’t exist, but it does.

“It’s expensive to treat and we need to talk about it. People are still becoming infected.

“Parents should be honest with their teenage children, especially when information is pumped into them through the media, the TV and lyrics.

“Fathers or male figures that care about their female offspring, sisters and cousins, should make mention of the possibilities of being sexually involved.

“It does start in the home and what parents model in front of their children.

“Parents know what’s out there in the world. They have experience, whereas teenagers are just starting. If adults are honest and share this information it can be used as a preventive measure for the youth.”

Ms Ball runs the communicable disease clinic at the Hamilton Health Centre, which offers free confidential HIV testing with no appointment necessary.

While the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organisation recommend that screening for HIV infection should be performed at least annually for persons likely to be at risk of HIV, Ms Ball said there was a relaxed attitude among persons believing themselves to be “exempt”.

“The fear is gone,” Ms Ball said. “You need to get tested as often as you place yourself at risk, which is different for everybody.

“There’s a lot of ignorance still. When you have ignorant thinking, you exempt yourself, so you’re more casual with your own behaviours and you put yourself at risk regularly.

“Education is important. It often doesn’t mean behaviour change. There are people who take protection but do not use it.”

Seven people had HIV or Aids diagnosed last year compared with 64 during the peak period in 1987. Ms Ball said the decline in new cases had caused issues of risk perception among the public.

“People are not thinking that they are putting themselves at risk. They say things like, ‘I don’t like the condoms’.

“A person can talk themselves out of good sense. I say, what would you prefer? To be irritated or to have an STI that we can only treat the symptoms of? We cannot get rid of it. It is your choice. We will treat you no matter what, but you ultimately have to live with this.

“I asked one person, ‘Do you care about yourself?’ And this person said, ‘No, I don’t’. I thought, I am not asking the right questions. We need to look for other indicators that will tell us if this person is involved in risky behaviours.”

Ms Ball said the clinic was often so short-staffed she was forced to encourage clients to seek additional support.

“It is really challenging,” she added. “I encourage some to go to the Women’s Resource Centre. I encourage them to seek this additional help because it’s not something we can provide in the clinic.”

The health centre routinely tests for all STIs, including HIV, and provides information on prevention for those with or without insurance.

Ms Ball stressed that despite her concerns, improvements had been made in recent years in the treatment of HIV.

“I tell people who have had a diagnosis, we can change those numbers, we can change those symptoms,” she said.

“You get better, the viral load or amount of virus in your body drops to undetectable, which allows your immune system to become strengthened. This is not an Aids diagnosis, so just wipe that out of your mind.

“The life expectancy of a person with the virus is just two years difference from a person who doesn’t.”

Ms Ball is proud of the management of women of childbearing years who are HIV positive.

“Our caring of these women and their desire to have healthy babies free of HIV disease have caused our stats to be zero for the past 20 or so years. Those mothers are healthy and strong, taking care of their children as mothers do. Life goes on.”