CDC: US AIDS epidemic fresh in risk-taking youth

[amigocabal]

CDC: US AIDS epidemic fresh in risk-taking youth

CDC: US AIDS epidemic fresh in risk-taking youth
By Maggie Fox, NBC News

AIDS is alive and well in a new generation of teenagers and young adults, most of them young men, who are having risky sex, often fueled by drugs or alcohol, U.S. officials said Tuesday.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a new report showing that more than a quarter of new U.S. infections are in youths aged 13 to 24, and 60 percent of them don’t even know it. That means they can spread the virus and, worse, aren’t getting treated for it.

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS cannot be cured, and it will kill people who are not treated for it. But a cocktail of drugs can keep patients healthy and if they take their medication consistently, they are far less likely to infect someone else.

The CDC estimates that 12,200 young men and women aged 13 to 24 became infected with HIV in 2010. And by far most of them were boys and men. Nearly three-quarters were boys and men having sex with other men. And more than half of the newly infected youths were African American.

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[Darth Wong]

Most interesting quote: "Kids who are gay or bisexual were less likely to say they had received sex education in schools".

Why would that be the case?

[Flagg]

Most interesting quote: "Kids who are gay or bisexual were less likely to say they had received sex education in schools".

Why would that be the case?

Probably because they don't teach about homosexual sex in school. At least they didn't at mine, but I was in the south so others may have been clued into it. All they taught us was about how horrible various STD's were. No mention of condoms.

[Dominus Atheos]

Most interesting quote: "Kids who are gay or bisexual were less likely to say they had received sex education in schools".

Why would that be the case?

I believe that sexuality is much more complicated then only liking, only liking men, or liking both equally. My personal experience is that gay people who come from supportive families and locations are (I don't know any other way to say this) simply less gay then those that didn't.

What I mean is, I personally believe that that sexuality is a range/spectrum, and it is possible to like one gender, but like the other gender more. But kids that are told that having any homosexual desires are wrong, and that they are a freak are more likely forget about or dismiss heterosexual desires, even if they may be stronger.

So kids that are called gay are more likely to grow up to be gay, even though their sexuality may fall anywhere on that spectrum.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

What I can never understand is, where do they get the figures from for those who have the virus but don't know it? Since technically one can only 'know' they have it once they've been diagnosed; and it's not like the people doing the testing are reporting their findings to their superiors but not bothering to inform those they test. What am I missing here?

[Simon_Jester]

They may be basing this on the statistics they gather from people who are coming to in to be tested for HIV. They didn't know three months ago that they had HIV, but now they do- and yet you can assume that comparable people exist today.

Or you might offer free testing.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

It makes you wonder how many of the people being tested are genuinely unaware they may have it, and how many suspect that they might.

[Serafina]

Most interesting quote: "Kids who are gay or bisexual were less likely to say they had received sex education in schools".

Why would that be the case?

As said above, because there most likely isn't any sex education that adresses the issues of gays and lesbians. "Use a condom" seems obvious - but if you are only told that condoms protect against pregnancy and STDs in a heterosexual context, you may not make the leap that they also work in a gay aspect.
As for lesbians, there is almost zero information out there on how to protect against STDs during lesbian intercourse - most young (16-18) lesbians i meet haven't even heard the word "dental dam". Granted, the need is less, but its still an issue you should be aware off.
Of course that assumes that the sex education offered even adresses STDs and not just pregnancy.

And frankly, sex education should be more than just "okay, so thats how you get pregant, those are STDs, use a condom", and i very much doubt that most teachers are able to talk about issues of sexuality, much less queer sexuality.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

And no student who is confused about their sexuality is going to ask their teacher about it anyway, and certainly not in front of the class. At that age, most people are not going to have any real knowledge of things like HIV.

[Alyrium Denryle]

Most interesting quote: "Kids who are gay or bisexual were less likely to say they had received sex education in schools".

Why would that be the case?

I would need to see the exact question asked to be sure, but often "sex education" in the US consists of "Be abstinent until your are married, condoms dont work, birth control does not prevent pregnancy. Porn causes child molestation, and gay people are sexual deviants". When I had sex education, I almost got booted from the room because the guy giving us the "talk" was lying to our faces and I refused to let him get away with it. (In fact, all of those claims I just rattled off are paraphrased from my middle school sex education talk, and worse, are pretty typical of sex education in all but the most liberal states).

So, for gay students in most states, sex education is at best not at all meaningful to them and at worst psychologically damaging. Hence the reason why they might say they did not have sex education. They might as well not have.