CEO Update: Sex & COVID-19

"Hi I’m Simon Ruth, CEO of Thorne Harbour Health.

As the situation around COVID-19 escalates. It’s vital that we don’t lose sight of our number one priority – the health and wellbeing of our communities.

Every day we take actions and make decisions that support our health. There has been a lot of questions about what this means for sex and sexual health.

In my last message, I addressed physical distancing. It is incredibly important we continue to limit our contact with others at this time.

This is going to save lives.

Unfortunately, this includes avoiding casual sex. Whilst COVID-19 is not a sexually transmitted infection, it is definitely transmitted through almost all sexual contact.

This is the first time in the history of this organisation, almost 4 decades, that we are telling our communities not to have casual sex.

This will not be forever.

To substantially limit your risk of COVID-19, you need to limit your number of sexual partners. This means only having sex with a person you live with or a sexual partner where you’re both observing strict physical distancing. And like many other aspects of sexual health – Communication is vital. Through clear communication, you and your sexual partner can understand potential risks.

There are also plenty of other ways to continue to enjoy sex. Check out our website thorneharbour.org where we have posted a range of ideas for you.

And we’d love to hear from you, email us your ideas about how to stay sexy and safe and we’ll find out what the experts have to say.

Head to: thorneharbour.org/covid19 to submit your idea.

Finally, there has been speculation within the community that antiretroviral drugs help prevent COVID-19.

This is simply NOT true.

People taking PrEP and those on HIV treatments need to take the same precautions as everyone else.

This is a challenging time, but we will get through this together.

Stay safe and look after one another.