HEALTH: CD offers sailors a bar code to safe sex

By Richard Ehrlich in Bangkok

Sailors in China and Southeast Asia are being taught how to avoid the risk of contracting HIV when they get drunk and have sex with bar girls.

A CD produced by the United Nations, "HIV/AIDS, Be Safe Not Sorry, Version 1.0," includes text and graphics as well as video and animation.

Also featured are plenty of photographs -- scientific pictures of blood cells, shots of sailors working on modern ships -- and snaps of Bangkok's Patpong bar scene.

Sailors view and interact with the CD, and answer its extensive questions in a course to be conducted by an instructor during three hours of lectures and exams.

UN officials created the compact disk because health information about the disease rarely reaches poorly educated sailors who work the freighters docking at regional ports.

The CD's first "case study" -- subtitled "rest and relaxation" -- begins with Harry and three fellow sailors visiting a bar after almost a month at sea.

When they meet a group of women, each man reacts differently.

One sailor has unprotected sex with two of their new friends.

A hungover Harry awakens in a room where he had spent the night with Irene.

The text outlines his predicament: "Irene was no longer there and had left a note which said, 'You were great last night. It was so funny to see how you fumbled with the condoms and you gave up after three tries. Anyway, I had fun!'."

Mingled with the CD's blunt stories and follow-up quizzes are urgent reminders for sailors to check the expiration dates on condoms and to avoid drugs.

For the first tutorial, an accompanying manual provides instructors with standard answers to quizzes about the four sailors' overnight adventures.

One man was "at risk of HIV infection" because he "did not control his alcohol intake, had multiple sex partners (and) did not use condoms when having sex", the manual advises teachers to say.

Harry risked HIV infection "because he did not check the expiry date on the condom, which could make it more likely to break".

Instructors are also advised to explain that Harry got "too tipsy to be able to put on a condom and therefore had unprotected sex".

Officials hope to distribute the CD to maritime academies, ship owners and port administrators to encourage them to develop AIDS prevention programmes.