STD posters gain attention as syphilis surge

The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare last month summoned comic book character Sailor Moon through leaflet and poster campaign to educate the young women to for STD testing.

This is not the first time the ministry has added creativity to its message of awareness about the sexually transmitted infections. It has from time and again found better ways to encourage the sexually active groups to engage in safe sex. Four years ago, it produced what can only termed as a bold poster that warned people that oral sex could be a means of spreading syphilis.

Who is behind the campaigns?

As cases of syphilis continue to torment the nation and health experts in particular, J-Cast News reports intended to have a conversation with the people behind the creative campaigns.

To get first hand information, J-Cast reporters paid a visit to the ministry where an official from the tuberculosis disease division, who was in charge of designing the poster, informed them that the intention was to get the public’s attention with a much bold message.

What was the provocative STD poster all about?

The ministry designed a rather unique poster that depicted male and female stick figures standing mutually inverted positions and a red background sending a danger message.

Just beneath this was other male and female stick figures holding hands against a blue background. This poster was accompanied by shouting text headline that read “Oral sex. It spreads by oral means, too.” This in a snapshot explained to the reader the swift way in which STD could be spread through oral sex.

The official said that “What matters right now is that everyone needs to be made aware of this situation. That’s what the Sailor Moon poster was about as well, and we heard all kinds of opinions about that, which means it was getting attention, meaning we could call that a result. We’re going to keep making posters that get talked about.”

Twitter users have been quick to praise it, saying that it is a spirited effort to break the upward syphilis trend. This is break from the typically conservative campaigns.

Officials say that they have no explanation for the sudden increase in cases syphilis. They say that more people are getting infected even without visiting the brothels.

According to an announcement by National Institute of Infectious Diseases, about 4,000 people got infected with syphilis as of 27th November this year.

Contributor: admin