Local News in Brief : Condom Billboard Blitz

A Los Angeles County physicians group has started a billboard advertising campaign to reduce the rate of increase in local AIDS cases by persuading sexually active residents to use condoms.

Over the next month, billboards at 100 locations throughout the county will bear the message: “If you can’t say no, use condoms (rubbers).”

“Barring abstinence or a mutually monogamous sexual relationship, condoms offer the best protection against infection with the AIDS virus,” said Dr. Gary S. Krieger, president of the Los Angeles County Medical Assn., which is providing $10,000 for the campaign.

Concerned that Los Angeles’ large Latino population has been bypassed by earlier anti-AIDS campaigns, the group will have at least half of the billboards written in Spanish.