Michele Luc, Cornell Cooperative Extension educator in New York City, works with over 25 youth agencies in New York City that address sexual health among youth. This week, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a report that said more than 25 percent of new HIV cases came from youth 13-24 years old, and that about 60 percent of them didn’t even know that had HIV. (http://www.cdc.gov/features/vitalsigns/HIVAmongYouth/)
World AIDS Day is Saturday, Dec. 1, 2012
Luc comments on the CDC report. She says:
“HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases are definitely still a problem, even in this era of information overload. We're bombarded with information and we have access to information from sites like Google, Wikipedia, WebMD, but that doesn't speak to the behavior which people engage in that contributes to HIV/AIDS and other STDs.
“Half of the battle is teaching people how to be sexually healthy, which involves learning how to recognize risks and how to reduce them, and learning how to talk to their partner about sex candidly.
“In the 1980s, when the AIDS epidemic started to become this major global health crisis, there was a massive health campaign to increase awareness of the virus, and to educate people about how it's spread and how to protect themselves from it, including safer sex practices.
“Fast forward a few decades later and we're now dealing with a whole generation of people who've lived through the first wave of AIDS education. There are some young people — and adults — who actually don't think it's a problem any longer because it's not in the media.
“People still hold onto the same myths that were prevalent when HIV/AIDS first came out — like they think it's only a problem in the gay community or they think young people don't get it. Once again, without media putting out information or without a face to attach to the virus, it's hard for young people to make a connection to it.”
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