Teaching people how to serve God as good and faithful Christians is an important part of lowering the amount of STDs in your community.

The Bible speaks clearly and directly about God's plan for humans. Stay away from sexual relations with prostitutes and homosexuals. Do not have sex outside of marriage at all (Ephesians 5:3). Husbands and wives should be available to one another for sex (1 Corinthians 7:5). Staying faithful to your marriage partner for life and that partner staying faithful to you is the best protection against HIV/AIDS and STDs.

• The only completely safe sex is sex with only one faithful partner. Do not have sex with someone outside your own marriage. Do not marry someone who has had sex with anyone else - without that person being tested first for HIV - and then be faithful to the marriage promise.
• Use a condom if there is any possibility that one of you has had other sexual partners. Using a condom reduces the risk of getting all STDs, but it does not assure complete protection.
• Especially avoid sex with persons who have had many other sexual partners. More partners create more chances to get STDs. Prostitutes and persons who inject illegal drugs are often exposed to STDs, including HIV/AIDS. People who are away from their marriage partners for long periods of time are tempted to go to prostitutes; so a married person should try to be available for relations with his or her own marriage partner regularly.
• Treat sexually transmitted diseases early - especially those causing sores. A person is more likely to get another STD, like HIV or hepatitis B, if he/she has sores in the private areas of the body. If a person or any sex partners has an STD, he or she should get treated. All sexual partners should also get treated. Remember, sometimes the visible signs of the disease may have never appeared or may go away, but the disease is still doing damage on the inside.
• Look for ways to protect and educate "street children," migrant workers, refugees, drug users and others at high risk. Show them how to avoid STDs. Advise people about safe sex. Help them get treatment quickly if they have STDs.
• If you have an injection, be certain the needle is a new one from a sealed package. If that is not possible, make sure that it has been disinfected first by washing in soapy water and then boiling in water for 20 minutes or soaking in full strength bleach for 5 minutes. Rinse well. Do not inject illegal drugs. Often drug users pass around used needles without cleaning them between users.
• If you care for a person when he or she is ill, protect yourself from their blood and body fluids. Use gloves, or at least wash your hands well and often, especially when handling things that have blood on them.
• Make sure instruments for circumcision, ear piercing, acupuncture, cutting umbilical cords and traditional practices such as scarring, are new from the package. Use a new instrument for each person and not just a new instrument for the ceremony that includes several people. If you can't have new instruments, make sure they are boiled for 20 minutes between people. You can also wash the instruments in soapy water and then soak them in bleach for 5 minutes to kill the HIV. Rinse with clean water to remove the bleach.
• Make sure your barber cleans his tools properly, or bring a new blade for having your hair cut.
• If possible, do not accept a transfusion of blood that has not first been tested. Sometimes, when a doctor says you need blood, healthy family members with similar blood types can donate blood for you. Avoid transfusions except when absolutely necessary.
• Encourage every pregnant woman to be tested for AIDS. Those who test positive should ask their health care center for special medicine to decrease the chances of the baby getting the disease.

HIV/AIDS is a health problem. It is also a social problem and a government problem, but it is often ultimately a spiritual problem. Education and training are important keys to helping young people not to get HIV/AIDS. God's teachings on sexual behavior needs to be taught to church members, HIV/AIDS patients and their families, the community, and school children starting at age 10. The world needs to know that sex before marriage, sex with partners of the same gender, and sex with partners outside the marriage are literally killing people around the world.

Marriage partners should be faithful to each other.

The ultimate answer is prevention.

Some people use these ABC's to help remember:

A: Abstinence before marriage or outside marriage

B: Be faithful - marriage partners should be faithful to each other

C: Care for the AIDS patients and families and orphans
    (or "C" for Condoms for when a marriage partner is infected)

Caring for Someone with AIDS