Youth Make Up 25% of New HIV Cases in the U.S., Most Don’t Know Their Status
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Reference: Poz.com - 30 Nov 2012
Accounting for a quarter of all new U.S. HIV infections in 2010, 60 percent of young people between the ages of 13 and 24 are unaware of their serostatus—thanks to low testing rates among youths, not to mention the failure of HIV prevention efforts to give them the tools to protect themselves, CBS News reports. Presenting data and analysis in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) used national surveillance data to estimate HIV prevalence among young people in 2009 and the incidence in 2010. The CDC also used the 2009 and 2011 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System for high school students and the 2010 National Health Interview Survey for Americans between 18 and 24 years old.
Among the estimated 47,500 new U.S. infections in 2010, about 26 percent, or 12,500 cases, were in young people ages 13 to 24. Within this group, 57.4 percent were African American, 19.6 Latino, and 19.5 percent white. Sex between males accounted for 72.1 percent of new infections, heterosexual sex 19.8 percent, and injection drug use (IDU) 4 percent. In addition, 3.7 percent were due to both IDU and sex between males.
All told, young people make up 6.7 percent of the estimated U.S. HIV population of 1.1 million. And while approximately 20 percent of all people with HIV do not know they are infected, 59.5 percent of young people are unaware. Despite the fact that the CDC has recommended for years that HIV testing should be adopted as a part of routine medical visits, only 22.2 percent of sexually active U.S. high school students reported ever receiving an HIV screen. Meanwhile, 34.5 percent of those between 18 and 24 reported being tested for the virus at least once.
The CDC recommended greater efforts to ensure that young people, especially men who have sex with men (MSM), “have the knowledge, skills, resources and support necessary to avoid HIV infection.” The agency said that health care providers and public health agencies should promote HIV testing among young people and also provide widespread access to sexual health services, not to mention health care and prevention services for HIV-positive youths.
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That is really scary, however at least you have those studies, here our government cut down the funding in cancer and hiv/aids care and research… they have a real strange sense of priorities :afr:
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:faint: Frightening News indeed.
From the earliest days of HIV/AIDS the % of funding available for educational resources has always been lower than needed by groups and programs providing this educational service to the communities they serve.Back when I was deeply involved in this effort we finally received $32,000 to hire an official HIV/AIDS Educator for the County I lived in at the time. The funds were to be Administered thru the County Health Dept. They made the decision to use those Funds to appoint the Doctor working for the HIV/AIDS Clinic as that official Educator. It was purely a political move to fund an unpaid Doctor's Staff position. This Doctor would provide no committed hours to an educational effort vs a 40 hours a week Educator. :crazy: Long story short I prevented them from diverting these funds but earned many enemies at the Health Dept. in the process. I feel sure that the funds are still not equal to the task to this day. :cens:
The second point I would make is that the age group mentioned in this article has always been the hardest group to reach for basically 2 reason's:
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Parental concerns ~ Parents have no problem with the "Abstinence" (no sex till you are married) approach to HIV/AIDS education. But the minute you mention having sex of any kind they freak out and assume that the education is now encouraging their kids to have sex. God forbid you mention Gay sex or try to give out condoms. :xpl:
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This age group has no clue how vulnerable they are to life and it's twists and turns. They feel "Invincible" to all of life's dangers let alone HIV/AIDS. I do not see this fact as ever changing. :cry2:
HIV/AIDS Education has always been the best tool in the fight to prevent the disease's spread. This has been true from Day 1 and will never change unless they find a vaccine one day.
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:cry2: the sadder thing it is people received it naturally because as you said in many hospitals terminal patients are well… less that taken well care of as a start, to the point you question ethics and deontology of the entire medical class... :blownose:
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It sad that 95% of kids(boys) that have HIV got it trought gay sex.
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Do we have any updated numbers??
