Sexually Transmitted Diseases including AIDS Campaign – Iraq – Kurdistan (IFMSA-Kurdistan)

Name of the activity: Sexually Transmitted Diseases including AIDS Campaign

Country/NMO: Iraq – Kurdistan (IFMSA-Kurdistan)

Program: HIV/AIDS & Other STIs

Contact information: [email protected]

Type of the activity: Campaign

General description:

We want to tackle this major public health issue through a CAMPAIGN which involves:
-Raising awareness about ways of transmission,consequences, prevention and importance of testing and early management as well as ending and fighting stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS and other STI’s through communication, seminars, leaflets and distributing red ribbons and condoms.
-Providing useful trainings and information to medical students in order to assure that current and future health providers will deliver appropriate medical attention and follow-up to patients living with HIV/AIDS and with other STI’s.
-Using the social media as a mean to end and fight the stigmatized and discriminatory practices against people living with STIs.

Focus area:

Prevention of all STIs or are specific STIs, Raising awareness among the general public about STIs, STI education or training for future health-care professions

Problem statement:

The problem in our society confronts two aspects :
-First aspect is regarding the health professionals when they refuse to provide health care for AIDS and other STIs patients also many of them are not fully aware about the impact of the STIs, its consequences and ways of prevention as well as the importance of patients education .
-Second aspect is regarding the community itself, they are completely uneducated about how to prevent the STIs and have a safe sexual relationship since it is a sensitive subject in our locality so we want through this campaign to tackle this problem and educate them about everything they need to know about the STIs .

Target groups and beneficiaries:

The target groups:
-General public
-Healthcare professionals
-Medical students
The beneficiaries:
-General public
-patients
-current and future healthcare professionals

Objectives and indicators of success:

The objectives of our activity are:
*Current and future health providers will deliver appropriate medical attention and follow-up to patients living with HIV/AIDS and other STI’s.
Success Indicators:
-An increase medical attention to patients with STIs.
-An unbiased management.
-An increase in care of health professionals and community medicine to educate the patients about how to prevent having an STI again and when they should seek medical help.
*General public be aware about ways of transmission, impacts, consequences, prevention and the importance of testing and early management.
Success Indicators:
-A decrease the number of people who got infected with one of the STIs.
-A decrease in the complications related to STIs.
-Cases with early stage of the disease.
*Ending stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS and other STI’s.
Success Indicators:
-Patients with STIs can freely talk about their illness to some extent.
-Patients with STIs can have an access to equal medical care.

Methodology:

Regarding the Health Professional:
-Delivering a training by a specialist in the 4 cities of Kurdistan to the health professionals showing the impact of the problem, our role towards it, how to protect ourselves and ending stigmatized and discriminatory practices against all STIs infected patients.
-A debate between the medical students about people living with HIV/AIDS and other STIs.

Regarding the General public:
-Raising awareness about ways of transmission, impacts, consequences, prevention and the importance of testing and early management through communication in public places (malls and public hospitals) with distributing leaflets,red ribbons and condoms.
-As well as tackling the problem in the social media through educational videos and uses of hashtags.

Plans for evaluation:

Plans of evaluation :
1. Recording the num of health professionals who have participated in the training to know how many we could reach.
2. Using of a survey at the end of the training to see how much this training was helpful to them.
3. Recording the num of the general public who we have reached and num of leaflets which we have distributed.
4. Comparing the current data of the ppl who have been infected or currently lives with STI with the future data.
5. Comparing the current mortality and morbidity rates with future ones.
6. Tracking the num of the views on social media.