Health worker educates Asian-Americans on avoiding STDs

Neighborhood health worker Wa Yang leads a workshop in St. Paul, Minnesota, designed to teach Asians and Pacific Islanders how to get tested for, and avoid contracting, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), the Asian American press reports.

Yang is the latest American Pacific-Islander (API) Community Health Worker to be hired by the St. Paul Neighborhood House to lead its Health Education Risk Reduction program.

According to the news source, a big part of his job involves breaking down API cultural and social taboos concerning the free discussion of STDs and sexual behavior.

His presentations range from discussions of HIV and hepatitis B symptoms to basic education about protected sex and STD screening.

The article adds that the local API community is an at-risk group due to its misconceptions about the ways STDs are transmitted and the life-long prognoses of certain infections.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that Asian and Pacific Islander populations account for three percent of America’s HIV cases.