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New ad campaign encourages older Floridians to watch for STDs

In this Jan. 12, 2021, file photo residents Ken Fishman, 81, left, and Esther Wallach, 82, right, hold hands as they wait in line for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at the The Palace assisted living facility in Coral Gables, Fla.
Lynne Sladky
/
AP
In this Jan. 12, 2021, file photo residents Ken Fishman, 81, left, and Esther Wallach, 82, right, hold hands as they wait in line for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at the The Palace assisted living facility in Coral Gables, Fla.

Floridians 55 and older are increasingly testing positive for sexually transmitted diseases and infections.

 

A new ad campaign from the AIDS Healthcare Foundation aims to encourage testing and treatment in Florida and across the U.S. That includes billboards in Fort Lauderdale and Miami.

The billboards show two elderly people sharing a kiss and the caption: “STDs are timeless.”

 

"Sometimes you gotta take an in-your-face kind of approach to wake people up to recognize that something is disproportionately impacting them," said Canady. "We’re talking not only about HIV but STDs and STIs in general and no one is talking to our senior population."

In 2012, 313 people in Florida ages 55 to 64 had chlamydia. That number soared to 1,377 in 2022 according to the most recent data available from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

 

For more information, visit freeSTDcheck.org

READ MORE: Florida women's healthcare ranks dismally

This is a News In Brief report. Visit WLRN News for in-depth reporting from South Florida and Florida news.

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Verónica Zaragovia was born in Cali, Colombia, and grew up in South Florida. She’s been a lifelong WLRN listener and is proud to cover health care for the station. Verónica has a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master's degree in journalism. For many years, Veronica lived out of a suitcase (or two) in New York City, Tel Aviv, Hong Kong, Las Vegas, D.C., San Antonio and Austin, where she worked as the statehouse and health care reporter with NPR member station KUT.