Martha Butler, in charge of the Program for Control of Sexually Transmitted Diseases (PROCETS) urged an increase in sex education in high schools. She said that heterosexual transmission is the leading form of AIDS contagion in the DR. Twenty percent of the Dominican population is of teenage or young adult age. Of these, 52% have not had access to any kind of sexual education. Butler says that 44% of Dominican female teenagers and 52% of male teenagers will have sex by 15 years old. In the 10-14 years old age group, they already have 26 cases of AIDS registered. In the 15-19 years old age group, there are some 352 cases and in the 20-24 years old group, 1,373 cases have been registered. She said more women than men are affected. The Ministry of Education is incorporating sex education instruction into several subjects offered in Dominican high school curricula. The Ministry is concerned with the disintegration of Dominican families, increase in interfamily violence, sex abuse, non-wanted pregnancies as well as increase in prostitution and sexually transmitted diseases.
