On Monday, 13 February 2023, on the occasion of the International Condom Day, the UNIC Department of Student Affairs, the Mobile Clinic, and the Medical Centre, in collaboration with the AIDS Solidarity Movement Cyprus, organised a Sexual Health event on campus. The participants had the opportunity to learn more about safer sexual practices, including PEP (Post Exposure Prophylaxis) and PrEP (Pre Exposure Prophylaxis), receive free condoms, lubricants and informative material and get tested for HIV/Syphilis. The screening tests were conducted by Cy Checkpoint, the Testing and Prevention Centre for HIV and Sexual Transmitted Infections.
Prior to the event, Medical School Clinical Assistant Professor and Personal Doctor at the UNIC Medical Centre, Chris Michael, delivered a training session to medical student volunteers on the ‘Approach to Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs): History and Screening,’ covering topics like sexual history taking, reducing barriers to taking sexual history, and how to ask your patients for consent.
UNIC Health Communications Officer, Christos Krasidis, who is also Cy Checkpoint’s Community Health Worker and Sexual Health Consultant of ECDC on HIV/STIs, talked about how to create a safe space and a non-judgmental environment, in the context of sexual history taking and community testing for HIV and other STIs.
The medical student volunteers had the opportunity to practise sexual history taking, using the Cy Checkpoint’s questionnaire, and to observe Community Health Workers perform HIV and Syphilis screening tests.
