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North Carolina launches sexual health awareness campaign

North Carolina is launching a new campaign to raise awareness about sexual health. 

The Take Pride Now initiative is designed to educate residents about safer sex practices, with a focus on how to avoid and manage sexually transmitted infections (STIs). 

The campaign urges people to take part in safer sex practices, and prioritize sexual health by getting tested regularly for STIs and vaccinated against mpox, formerly known as monkeypox. The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services has launched the Take Pride Now campaign in advance of Pride Month, which takes place in June. 

Officials say the country is seeing a resurgence of mpox cases and would like to see more North Carolinians vaccinated against the disease.

There have been 708 mpox cases statewide through the end of April, with the majority of infections among gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men. 

There is more information about getting tested and treated on the NCDHHS website

Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.

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