Thousands of Mardi Gras beads will be loaded with condoms in Soulard this year.  They’re  part of an   “in your face”  attempt  to fight sexually transmitted diseases  in St. Louis.

Those behind the effort told Fox 2 Tuesday night, that it was far from being “over the top”.

For one thing, the “condom beads” will not be thrown from floats during Saturday’s Mardi Gras parade.

For another, the people who test for STD’s told Fox 2 the problem of STD’s in St. Louis was too big too ignore;  Mardi Gras was an STD breeding ground.

“STD transmission is at an all time high, anywhere you go,” said Boomer Gutknecht, a counselor at the Advanced Medical Testing Center in Webster Groves.

“People get careless.  They make bad decisions.  They just don’t think.  That’s partly because it’s a party, Mardi Gras,” he said.