KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent (CMC):

The head of this country's AIDS secretariat says urgent work is needed to make condoms more easily accessible to sexually active children.

Dr. Dell Hamilton made the call against the backdrop of a recent survey which showed that while an average 86 per cent of respondents, between ages 10-14, know that the disease was contracted and spread during sexual intercourse, only 34 per cent of them used a condom the last time they had sex.

The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Behavioural Surveillance Survey showed that despite the education and awareness programmes, young people were still not taking the necessary precautions that would keep the spread of the disease at a minimum.

"The survey highlights a phenomenon that we know exist," said Dr. Hamilton, who has spearheaded the country's fight against HIV/AIDS for the past three years.

She said her department recognised that youth in that age bracket find difficulty accessing condoms, because to be sexually active at such a young age was still frowned upon by society.

"We have been working with our health-care providers because when the younger ones try to access condoms they get negative reactions, which turn them away," Dr. Hamilton said.

She told the Caribbean Media Corporation that while abstinence remained the first choice, more so for that 10-14 age group, if they decided to have sex, they must have the option of protection easily available to them.