BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – IN just a matter of weeks, the city of Basseterre will be transformed into the city of revelry, the city of Carnival, the city of Sugar Mas 42. And it is expected that fun will be the order of the day, but the warning that comes from health and culture officials is “be safe” and “don’t overdo it”.
If the birth of babies is any indication of the level of unprotected sex or the increase or decrease thereof, people seem to increase their sexual exploits during the Carnival season as was confirmed by Chief Medical Officer Dr. Patrick Martin.
In an interview with SKNVibes, he said there is a spike in births nine months after the Carnival season and nine months after Valentine’s Day, which suggests that either more sexual activity taking place during these times or more unprotected sexual activity is taking place.
Dr. Martin attributes this increase to the influence of alcohol and drugs as well as individuals’ dependence on others who control their purse strings.
“Alcohol and other influential drugs cloud the judgment, and so people make decisions they regret. That is clearly a factor! The other factor is persons who are dependent on men and women for money are forced to make certain choices, and one of those choices they make is to have unprotected sex if the person demands it…”
Pregnancy is only one concern associated with unprotected sex, especially with the additional risk of contracting one of the many sexually transmitted infections: HIV, bacterial vaginosis, chlamydia, genital herpes, gonorrhoea, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, human papillomavirus, lymphogranuloma venereum (LGV), pubic lice, scabies, syphilis, trichomoniasis and yeast infections.
Dr. Martin’s advice to revellers during the season is to “be careful, be safe! Condoms are widely available and they are free in the health centres. If you cannot abstain, use protection and avoid drunkenness and fatigue”.
During her brief remarks to officially declare the Sugar Mas 42 season open, Minister of Culture the Hon. Marcella Liburd advised revellers to “be responsible in mas playing. We can have fun but we don’t have to overdo it. We don’t have to be totally drunk to enjoy ourselves. So we have to know where to stop with the drinking, we have to know where to stop with the jumping on one another before it turns into something more physical that we don’t want.
“And so I am challenging all of us to be responsible in our playing mas this year, responsible in our drinking, responsible in our jumping up to ensure that we have an incident-free Carnival. That’s a challenge I want all of us to take up. We want an incident free Carnival, so let us be responsible in every way. We can be responsible and still have great fun”.
2.jpg)