FPA wrong to blame Pacific for syphilis problem

Wednesday 12th July, 2006

The Family Planning Association is wrong to blame the Pacific for NZ syphilis problem

In a news story posted today on the Stuff.co.nz website, the NZ Family Planning Association (FPA) blames New Zealand’s alarming syphilis problem on the Pacific, with Fiji being singled out as a prime suspect.

“Such suggestions are ludicrous and show that the FPA is desperate to shift attention away from the failings of their condom promotions in New Zealand” says Family Life International media spokesperson; Brendan Malone.

The story posted on Stuff.co.nz states that “Auckland sexual health clinic statistics showed 47.5 per cent of people who were testing positive for syphilis indicated they'd picked it up while travelling, with Fiji a popular destination.”

But Brendan Malone says that the FPA appears to have missed two rather important and glaringly obvious issues related to these statistics.

“Firstly; how can people be 100% certain that they picked up syphilis while travelling? It’s quite conceivable that they already had the sexual disease before they left our shores and that they simply didn’t notice it until during, or just after, their trip abroad.”

“Secondly; these statistics show quite clearly that over fifty two percent of people surveyed didn’t contract the disease while travelling. This means that New Zealand has a far more serious problem with syphilis being contracted and spread right here in New Zealand” says Mr Malone.

In the Stuff.co.nz story; executive director of the NZ Family Planning Association, Gill Greer, states that “social and cultural taboos around sex and the place of women on many Pacific islands were complicating factors. Many community leaders relied on Christian values to keep people safe, and opposed publicising promiscuity and sexually-transmitted diseases.”

But Brendan Malone says that this is just a lame attempt by Gill Greer to further the FPA’s failed condom promoting agenda in the Pacific.

“True to form, the FPA blames Christianity for the problem of sexual disease in the pacific, but has anybody ever bothered to stop and ask whether in fact the sexual disease in places like Fiji is being caused by Western holiday makers introducing and propagating it in that region?” says Mr Malone.

“You don’t catch syphilis like you catch a cold; you actually have to have sex with an infected person. These latest statistics show that New Zealand has a serious problem with sexual promiscuity and that kiwis are now incorporating that promiscuity into their trips overseas with disastrous results” says Mr Malone.

The Stuff.co.nz story: http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3728691a7144,00.html

ENDS

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