Dear Pastor,

We are familiar with your work and thought you would be the best person with whom to raise this issue. A very good friend of ours visited Jamaica in the past year and met a man. His details are given. They had what you would call a holiday romance and she stupidly did not allow him to use condoms. She came back to the United Kingdom with infections including HIV, and as you can imagine, she is distraught. Now this man is still wilfully sleeping with unsuspecting women and spreading sexual diseases in the Harbour View. He needs to be stopped as he is a serious health hazard to all women and desperately needs to seek treatment. Is there any chance you could call or write to him confidentially and encourage him to get tested and start treatment immediately? When our friend contacted him to advise him of her diagnosis, he ignorantly refused to seek help and he will not take any- more of her calls. That has left her suicidal and an emotional wreck of which we are having to pick up the pieces. I am sure you are aware that here in the United Kingdom, it is a criminal offence to knowingly sleep with someone and not tell them of your HIV status. I am not sure what the law states about infecting others with HIV in Jamaica, but please warn the women of Jamaica that they are in danger and need to protect themselves.

Concerned Friends

Dear Concerned Friends,

You describe others and yourself as concerned friends. I wish you had given me your names. If you are speaking the truth you, shouldn't be afraid of giving your names. I wouldn't divulge that information. You have given me the name of the man you alleged has passed on the HIV virus, his telephone number and his address. Why are you hiding yours? Are you trying to set me up? Why didn't you give me the name of the woman so that I could contact her and speak to her in person? Again, I ask you, are you trying to set me up? You couldn't be serious when you asked me to call this man. Call him and say what to him? Do you mean that I should tell him that I heard he has been having sex with women and spreading sexual transmitted diseases and that I got this information from an anonymous source from the United Kingdom? Come on, get real. I will do no such thing.

You have described this man in such a way that if we were to publish what you have written, nobody would miss him, but it would be wrong for us to do so. I would be very irresponsible and I don't know if you are telling the truth. The question you may ask is why then publish this letter? I do so to remind every citizen who engages in sexual activities that it is their responsibility to protect themselves at all times. Of course, I am sorry to hear about your friend and I trust that she would follow the advice of her doctor.

Pastor