In the US, many parents will do well to take their teen-aged kids to visit the Haunted House in Nashville !
'Haunted House' to scare teens into safer sex
NASHVILLE (Tennessee) - This city with one of the highest rates of sexually transmitted diseases in the United States is hoping to scare its teenagers into practising safe sex with explicit pictures of sores and warts.
Health officials in Nashville, Tennessee, have staged what they call the 'STD Free! Haunted House' exhibition in a dimly lit, S-shaped maze.
As visitors walk down the maze, they view startling, full-colour photos of canker sores and genital warts on male and female genitalia infected with syphilis, chlamydia or gonorrhea.
An empty casket at the end sends a message that death awaits anyone who does not practise safe sex.
'We want to scare their pants back on,' said Ms Elizabeth Frazier, a registered nurse at Tennessee State University's health centre.
'We encourage abstinence. But if they cannot do that, then use protection.'
Ms Lynnette Whitlow, programme specialist for the city health department, said some football players could barely get through last year's haunted house.
'Guys would come up and say nothing scares them,' said Ms Whitlow. 'Then before they could get around the corner ... I could hear them screaming.'
The haunted house was developed three years ago after Nashville reported the second-highest rate of syphilis in the country. --AP |
