A report released Tuesday found that 40 percent of New York City residents who have multiple partners did not use a condom the last time they had sex. The city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene report, "Safer Sex in the City," was based on a poll of 10,000 adults. Among them, about 11 percent reported having multiple sex partners.
"Sex is a normal part of life, but we want people to enjoy it safely," said Cari Olson, the department's director of community epidemiology.
The report found encouraging news in the fact than most young adults with more than one partner do use condoms. However, about half of residents older than 45 reported not using them.
"People who are currently in their mid-40s are of a generation that was not given the safe sex message steadily throughout school and throughout their lives and may have become sexually active before the AIDS epidemic," said Martha Kempner of the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States.
In addition, message fatigue and treatment optimism could be at play, said Soraya Elcock, a deputy director with Harlem United Community AIDS Center.
For more information, visit http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/pr2008/pr044-08.shtml.
06/24/08
Many New Yorkers Having Unprotected Sex
Source: Newsday (Melville):: Marlene Naanes; Ryan Chatelain; Courtesy of the CDC National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention