The catch? The video had to address sexually transmitted infections.
Ironically, the contest aimed at reducing STI stigma was seemingly hindered by STI stigma.
“It did feel a little weird talking about sex and STIs, but … I knew that (the) Santa Clara County (Public Health Department) was doing good things by spreading the word about STI awareness, so I wanted to be a part of it,” said Landon Qizilbash, a freshman at Mountain View High School and the first-place winner of the Santa Clara County Public Health Department’s 2023 Viral Video Contest.
Qizilbash heard about the competition through his commercial art teacher, Tom Chang. The commercial art class is an elective that teaches real-world skills, and Chang thought allowing his students to submit videos into the competition would not only be an engaging way to teach them about video editing, but also would help them learn about healthy relationships.
“I think there’s a lot to be gained from these outside opportunities to present your work … because students take that a lot more seriously than they take class assignments sometimes because of the motivation of the prize money and because a lot more people … will be seeing their work,” Chang said.
Despite the cash-prize incentive, only about half of his students who made a video ultimately submitted it into the competition, according to Chang. But regardless if students opted to submit their work, it still encouraged peers to talk to one another about STIs.
“I learned a ton,” Qizilbash said. “Before this competition, I thought STIs were just a rare thing, but after researching it and talking about it, I realized it’s a much more common thing and we should probably be thinking about it more than we are already.”
Rising infection rates
The Public Health Department’s STI and HIV Annual Report shows that the rates of all sexually transmitted infections in the county continue to be quite high, with some of the highest rates in the past decade. Females ages 15-19 had the third-highest chlamydia rate in 2021 among other age groups, and gonorrhea case rates increased 44% for people ages 15-19 between 2012 and 2021.
“Our rates that we’re seeing in Santa Clara County do mirror rates across the country, where we’re seeing increases in sexually transmitted infections,” said Akanksha Vaidya, assistant public health officer and STI/HIV controller for the county’s Public Health Department. “And while there could be a variety of reasons for this increase, I think one main reason that Public Health is trying to tackle it is that some people might not have access to the right information or resources to get that information that they need to prevent these infections.”
The Viral Video Contest is part of Public Health’s Getting to Zero Programs, which aims for zero new HIV infections, zero HIV-related deaths and zero HIV-related stigma and discrimination in the county. The program also created a Youth and Young Adult Advisory Board, which allows students ages 14-24 to gain professional experience and knowledge in topics related to STI and HIV prevention and education.
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