If one recent report has it right, HIV-infected teens are taking some scary risks these days.
A study conducted at the University of California, Los Angeles Center For Community Health found that the advent of powerful AIDS-delaying medicines has caused HIV-infected teenagers to increase the chances they are taking when engaging in risky sex and drug use.
Since the 1996 introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapies, or HAART, which fight the transition from HIV to AIDS, young people have come to see HIV as a disease they can live with. Comparing behaviors among HIV-infected teens from different major metropolitan cities during two different periods - one before the introduction of HAART drugs and one after - the research found that the post-HAART group was almost twice as likely to have unprotected sex and use drugs. Sadly, the post-HAART group also was diagnosed with HIV at a younger age and was in poorer health.
The study found that the teens had an attitude that HAART drugs made them feel safer - safer from a disease that has no cure and ultimately kills you. That's kind of like smokers who continue lighting up after they have lost their voices and have to breathe through tracheotomy tubes.
Hopefully, these practices are not as prevalent as the study suggests, but with spring break less than a week away, students need to be cautious about the choices they make while out having a good time on vacation. This study has certainly shown that the level of ignorance in some people calls for even more scrutiny when choosing sexual partners.
In the United States, roughly a quarter of the 40,000 new infections occur each year in people younger than the age of 21, according to the federal Centers of Disease Control and Prevention. Unfortunately, on the whole, AIDS infection rates in America are on the rise. It feels as though the fear factor AIDS used to possess has weakened. As less focus is given to the disease, people become less wary of the risks involved with having unprotected sex.
One note of interest about the study was that HIV-positive adults also conveyed an attitude of being safer because of the drugs. If anything, this shows that the problem is deeper than young people making stupid choices. The amount of sex education and support teenagers are receiving from parents and in schools isn't sufficient. Given a rise in HIV diagnoses, there is an obvious need to increase honest educational efforts.
It's a shame that, while America has a problem with misinforming its youth about how HIV/AIDS is contracted, a segment is taking good information and misusing it. HAART drugs have been proven effective in keeping HIV patients from progressing to AIDS, which is great for those who already are suffering from the sexually transmitted disease.
However, they shouldn't be used as an alternative to safe sex practices - and certainly not as a safety net for abusing illegal drugs.
