AIDS PUTS CARDS ON THE TABLE FOR AWARENESS

A new AIDS awareness campaign is using saucy humour to drive home the
importance of safe sex and responsible needle use.

The Victoria AIDS Resource & Community Service Society launched its
second series of Play Safe postcards earlier this month, combining
cheeky innuendo with iconic, 1950s images to deliver the message.

"It's been proven that frightening people into safer behaviour just
doesn't work, What we're trying to do with humour is make the message
more accessible," said VARCS executive director Michael Yoder.

"Younger, older, straight men, women, gay men, First Nations -
everyone can laugh at the jokes and understand the importance of safer
behaviour."

The cards - printed with a $3,000 grant from the B.C. Gaming
Commission - are available for free from the society's office at 1284F
Gladstone Ave. They can also be viewed online at www.varcs.org.

The latest set of 15 was released a week before Gay Pride Day.

Yet, despite increased education about HIV/AIDS, and how it's
transmitted, the number of infections is still on the rise among gay,
heterosexual and bi-sexual men in Greater Victoria.

According to statistics collected by the Vancouver Island Health
Authority, the rate of positive HIV tests jumped from 8.1 in 2000 to
10.7 in 2001.

It's not clear how many of the new tests were actually retests, or if
the people had been infected for quite some time.

"It's difficult to determine everyone who's infected because many
people are asymptomatic for years without suspecting they're sick,"
said Yoder. "These people can pass HIV without knowing. So, prevention
is still the best way for people to avoid getting HIV."

The incidence rate among intravenous drug users currently sits at
about 20 per cent.

The challenge in reducing those numbers, says Yoder, is finding a
prevention message that will resonate with everyone.

"People have to feel it in their gut. Finding something to internalize
that message, and make it relevant, is difficult," he said, adding
other sexually transmitted diseases such as syphilis, are on the rise
in Victoria and across Canada.

"Retro is sort of cool and in right now. There's an innocence to the
images we've used that make them funny when twisted a bit," said
Yoder, describing the picture of a teenage girl clad in 50s garb,
mixing crystal meth in her kitchen.

"I believe the combination will be effective in reaching people.