CCHDC backs sex education in schools to combat rising sexual health problems
22 Jul 2012, 10:35 PM
Hawwa Lubna
Age appropriate sexual and reproductive health education needs to taught in schools to combat the increasing “sexual health illnesses” in the Maldives, according to the Centre for Community Health and Disease Control (CCHDC).
CCHDC’s Public Health Programme Coordinator Nazeera Nazeeb revealed that studies have found high risk behaviors young people – including “unprotected sex, drug and alcohol abuse, homosexuality and prostitution” – are putting them at high risk of sexually transmitted diseases and HIV risk.
During a rapid situation assessment of drug abuse in Maldives in 2003 conducted by the Narcotics Control Board it was found that as many as 75 percent of youth surveyed have had reported having at least one sexual experience by age 21. In 2005, a similar outcome was derived in a Youth Ministry survey, which showed that 14 percent of males and five percent of females under the legal age of 18, admitted to being sexually active.
In both of the unpublished surveys many adolescents and youth reported their sexual encounters were “without condom use”, the basic defense against sexually transmitted diseases (STI), HIV and unwanted pregnancies.
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