What AIDS Means to Today's Youth

http://health.yahoo.com/news/healthday/moreyoungamericansarecontractinghiv.html

This article features a long list of statistics from the CDC (Center for Disease Control) about the recent disturbing spike in reported new cases of HIV infections among teenagers and young adults. For the most part, at the present time, it is most dramatically affecting young gay men and the black community. This, however, is symptomatic of the nature of the marginalization these groups suffer in our society and also is a precursor to wider infection rates among other minority groups. Also, among gay men, the trend of new cases of reported infections is not limited only to young men but to all age groups. The reason why the statistics are lower among young white people are probably many, however one possible answer is a possible decreased likelihood of them getting tested. It has become routine that when doing blood tests of any kind that HIV screening is often done, something I know from personal experience. This is sometimes an option the patient can choose and sometimes something the doctors will order as part of policy or routine. Depending on the discretion of the doctor or the regional practice within hospitals, it is possible that it is less likely to be done on white patience due to the way in which HIV education is often targetted towards urban gay and black youth.

The nature of the public face of HIV, and the above mentioned targetting of specific groups is also a suspected cause for the spike in reported cases. As mentioned, many ads for new drugs show attractive men with athletic bodies living fully despite their HIV/AIDS status. It is also not in the media eye what happens as the disease develops so that the fear of contracting it has been taken away. Young people feel invincible anyways, a trend that is commented on often. That in addition to the invisibility of AIDS victims in our modern media and daily lives creates the atmosphere of complacency. People don't see the effects that the drugs still have on the body, or the way in which it affects people as they age with the disease. They also don't get an accurate representation of the facts of actually getting access to those drugs and the health care costs related to 'living a full life' with AIDS.

Among gay men, at least, the complacent attitude young and older people have developed have included and been accompanied by a huge rise in the use of Crystal Meth. It started as a party drug, but because of the nature of it, quickly spread to one of the most common substances abused among gay men. It has also been resulted in the appearance and rise of the subculture called 'barebacking', which promotes the practice of unsafe sex as the only real path to sexual pleasure. This trend has gone from a counterculture among older gay men, 'bears', and S&M practitioners to a wide variety of other subcultures within the gay male community. This practice and subculture relies heavily on an intentional ignorance of HIV and other STD infections, ignoring statistics and adopting a 'whatever' attitude about the actual affects of the disease. As this is also a practice that promotes and relies on a similar attitude of invincibility, these attitudes also promote a lack of regular testing.

Whatever the reasons for the rise of infections, one of the most dangerous aspects of this rise is the portrayal of this information among the media. As with the first emergence of HIV and AIDS during the 1980's and 90's, it is too easy for it to be portrayed as a gay or black disease. Given the lack of reliable information on the use of condoms as birth control among heterosexual groups of all ethnic minorities, or information on the number of partners in various sexual habits, it is impossible and wrong to say that it isn't just as likely among other minority groups, and especially given the lack of promoting testing among these minorities. That is the most major contributor, I feel, to the spreading of the disease. Accompanying all of this awareness and information, is the promotion of testing, or lack thereof. It is standard practice of health classes across the country to discuss safe sex and STD/STI's and organizations such as the CDC and Planned Parenthood have made the latest information on prevention and statistics widely and readily available, so the access to such information is everywhere, so any ignorance on the disease would seem more intentional than not to me.

The truth is that people DON'T see people suffering from the disease on a daily basis. They don't hear from people like my friend in New York who knows that if he ever moves from the city he'll have only a few options as his medical care requires that he's on welfare. The medications alone cost $3,000 per month, much less the routine trips to the clinic for checkups, the modifications he's had to make to his diet and activities due to the connection of his physical levels of exhaustion with the severity of symptoms of the disease and the side-affects of the medication. Young and old people alike who do not know a person living with the disease, or aren't aware of someone in their life who is, are not going to know the amount of effort and money that go into living the full life advertised in the HIV medication ads. That makes them complacent, ignorant and irresponsible. Ultimately HIV/AIDS is reemerging as a major threat and hopefully people will wake up to reality in both preventing its spread and in the nature of their personal understanding of the disease itself.