United States: Disease prevention officials in Pierce County are exploring the possibility that “Strange” billboards will help combat a rising rate of syphilis.
Health departments’ playful spin approach
Through this pilot project, with a playful spin on a popular sci-fi TV show, the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department aims to take the air of mystery around STD treatment.
The fall campaign, which started last summer, features Television and movie-themed billboards.
“Stranger Things” is the most recent part of this campaign. The goal they are working towards is pricking the public’s curiosity enough for them to at least see reason in finding a way to stop the upward trend in case numbering over the past few years.
Raising curiosity for syphilis awareness
Kim Aguilar, the STD and HIV program manager of Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, said, “We are using humor to draw attention to the issue of syphilis,” and, “Syphilis, don’t let it turn your world upside down.”
Aguilar added, “We want to attract the attention of the public, and one of the best ways to do that is through popular cultural references and, so, that’s what we have done,” as Fox13 News reported.
Further, “Syphilis isn’t extinct, and sex is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you are going to get,” she stated.
Syphilis information spread
She says health officials back then did not use any tricks to get some of this information to the public. She might sometimes have a single-colored pink soft toy that looks like the bacteria itself to teach how people get syphilis transmitted to them.
“It is a special spiral corkscrew shape that allows the bacteria to penetrate the skin,” she said
Aguilar says that the rash or ringworms start as a painless sore, and then they grow into an itchy rash that can result in hair loss.
Aguilar, while showing off pictures of what the rashes do look like and other related hair loss, stated, “This is patchy hair loss that someone might develop during the secondary stage of syphilis.”
If left untreated, syphilis can also get into the spinal column, leading to problems such as vision and hearing losses, as Fox13 News reported.
Aguilar added, “The numbers have increased dramatically in the past few years.”