Report suggests ages 13-24 are higher risk periods for HIV infections
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According to a recent report from the CDC, HIV rates for young people between the ages of 13-24 are still very high. What is very high? One in every 4 new infections includes a person in this age range. This is scary when you think about what that number means as a whole and how one of those people could be affecting your child or even you!
The report goes on to mention that young gay and bi-sexual males make up the majority of the new numbers for infections. When HIV started making mainstream news many years ago it was thought of by many narrow minded people as a disease that only affected the gay population. When studies come out like this, though they have good information many of us are soon to turn a deaf ear and eye when we PERCEIVE it’s not something we have to be concerned with.
HIV is an equal opportunity disease. It doesn’t care who it infects if the conditions are right. People who share needles in the drug game get HIV. Babies are sometimes born to their mothers despite efforts to prevent it with HIV.
In all honesty, kids themselves as they reach puberty can be very curious and not know all the ins and outs of how the disease spreads even when WE as adults think we are doing a good job informing them about it. Face it, many adults don’t even know the real deal because we’re too afraid to talk about it as if you can get it from saying the words.
HIV is a people disease–not a gay disease or a straight disease; but, instead one that tears apart families and can kill people if it develops into full blown AIDS. Because it isn’t as highly spoken of as in the past in main stream media, it is easy for us to become complacent and forget that it can hit anyone at any time if we are not careful.
Parents would be wise to ask a lot of questions about the health programs their children take part in at school. Also, don’t be afraid to have your own conversations with your children. The conversation with you may be the one that saves their lives. And as much as we’d like to see our kids abstain from sexual activity until marriage, a good majority won’t. For anyone who does abstain, marriage itself is not some instant barrier against the disease because everyone has a past and if not careful a new partner can pay the price for it.
Talk early and often to your teens about all STD’s and HIV to make sure they have a full understanding of the disease and know that you can’t see HIV walking towards you. It pays to know your status and to make sure teens know the importance of knowing theirs as well.
For more information, visit www.aids.gov.
Photo: Trygve Utstumo/Flickr
This all goes to show just how important it is to teach kids about taking precautions. The myth that “It doesn’t feel as good when I’m wearing a condom” is pretty baseless in this day and age as far as I’m concerned. Maybe in the distant past when condoms were made of thicker rubber rather than the much thinner latex that is used nowadays, was there some truth in that particular myth. For my own two penn’orth, having experience both with and without protection, I can honestly say that, other than the act of putting it on, it makes little… Read more »
Very true…so many teens are not using condoms…
People can be so ambivalent…or perhaps they may have a secret death wish….I have heard of gay men, some in the health professions, who know about the risks of not using a condom, but do so anyway and then, guess what….?
Thank you Aleasa …..