A public health event is being served up at Brock \u2014 with a side of pizza.<\/p>\n
No health card is needed for members of the Brock community to take part in free and confidential sexually transmitted infection (STI) testing on Wednesday, Oct. 25.<\/p>\n
A partnership between Brock\u2019s Student Wellness and Accessibility Centre and Niagara Region Public Health, the event runs from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. in the Sean O\u2019Sullivan lobby. Participants will provide confidential urine samples in nearby bathrooms. The urine samples will then be tested for gonorrhea and chlamydia.<\/p>\n
As an added incentive for participating, students will receive a free slice of pizza.<\/p>\n
Julie Fennell, Brock\u2019s Health Promotion Educator, said an event focusing on sexual health and STI testing is particularly important for Brock\u2019s student demographic.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese infections are becoming increasingly prevalent,\u201d she said of gonorrhea and chlamydia. \u201cThey are most common in men and women between the ages of 20 to 24.\u00a0Half of all chlamydia infections occur within those four years.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the last seven years, STI rates have been on the rise. And with 80 per cent of those infected with chlamydia or gonorrhea having no symptoms, Fennel stressed that it is important to get tested regularly.<\/p>\n
\u201cThough the infections may be asymptomatic, they can lead to long-term concerns including infertility,\u201d said Fennell. \u201cThis is just one of the reasons we encourage students to get tested before a relationship blossoms. It can be a great idea to get tested together before you have sex.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beyond the free pizza available for participants \u2014 catering to all dietary requirements, including vegetarian, vegan and gluten free \u2014 there will also be resources available to learn more about safe sex, as well as complimentary condoms and other items.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis event promotes a healthier community, and encourages awareness of the importance of regular testing, which is a critical part of sexual health as a whole,\u201d said Fennell. \u201c Last year we had 650 people participate, and we are hoping for even more this year.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A public health event is being served up at Brock \u2014 with a side of pizza.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[54],"tags":[5899,1403,5056],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47417"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47417"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47417\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47418,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47417\/revisions\/47418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}