Breathless

Did you know that 60 percent of New Yorkers still practice unsafe sex? As a British import living in NYC this might be an opportunity to feel all high and mighty... but no. Apparently 70 percent of people in the U.K. still practice unsafe sex.

These statistics were highlighted in a campaign for amfAR (The Foundation for AIDS Research) around World AIDS Day last year and appeared in NYC and London. Did the campaign work? Do any HIV/AIDS prevention campaigns work?

The answer is, "No," according to this recent article in the New York Times, which reports that the number of new HIV infections occurring in the United States is 40 percent higher than previously estimated -- that's 56,300 new infections in 2006, not 40,000 as previously cited.

Bears

So what do we do now, give up? That answer is also, "No." We still need to get the safe sex message out there as often as possible because right now, prevention is the only cure we have (besides abstinence of course, but that's a whole different discussion).

There is one campaign that does seem to be helping. In February 2007, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene launched NYC Condom, a free condom initiative that utilized their own brand. This rather unimaginative title was accompanied with a catchier tagline, "Get some." The NYCDOHMH urged local businesses, clinics and non-profit organizations to carry these free condoms and display them conveniently for responsible (and energetic) New Yorkers to take.

And take they did. An astonishing 36 million NYC Condoms were given out last year. That's an average of 3 million every month, which is twice the number given out annually before the City launched its own brand.

Since then, the NYC Condom was re-branded and launched again on Valentine's Day this year. You can "get some" at all five Kenneth Cole New York stores and at 900 other locations in NYC. (I could describe that as a "shameless plug" but considering the subject matter, that would be a poor choice of words.)

You can find the full directory of locations on the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene's website.

The increasing HIV infections, and the fact that programs like this exist, prompted a colleague, Rob Berland, and I to create four short online films in an attempt to discover who is the 60 percent out there still foolhardy enough to practice unprotected sex?

They were generously directed by Otto Inman and star Jay Devore and Sarah Wentworth. I've posted two right here and the other two will appear here next week.