"Be a force for change -- talk with young people about AIDS"
is the
theme designated by the Joint United Nations Program on Human
Immunodeficiency Virus/ Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome
(HIV/AIDS) for
this year's World AIDS Day, December 1, 1998. Approximately 30
million
persons were living with HIV/AIDS by the beginning of 1998 (1).
Many of
them were infected as adolescents or young adults. In the United
States, in
areas with both AIDS and HIV infection reporting, 3% of persons
with AIDS
and 14% of those with HIV infection reported during January
1994-June 1997
were aged 13-24 years (2). Therefore, decreasing high-risk sexual
and
drug-using behaviors among teenagers and young adults should
continue to be
an important primary HIV prevention priority.
Information from 12 local and state health departments
participating
in the Supplement to HIV/AIDS Surveillance Project (3) indicates
that many
infected adolescents and young adults continue to engage in
high-risk
sexual behaviors (e.g., sexual intercourse without condoms and with
multiple sex partners); however, some modify their behavior after
learning
they are infected (CDC, unpublished data, 1998).
Additional information about World AIDS Day and AIDS and HIV
infection
in teenagers and young adults is available from CDC's National AIDS
Clearinghouse, telephone (800) 458-5231, and on the World-Wide Web,
http://www.cdcnpin.org; CDC's National AIDS Hotline, telephone
(800)
342-2437; and CDC's Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention, National
Center for
HIV, STD, and TB Prevention World-Wide Web site,
http://www.cdc.gov/nchstp/hiv_aids/dhap.htm.
References
Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS. Report on the
HIV/AIDS
epidemic. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization, June
1998.
CDC. Diagnosis and reporting of HIV and AIDS in states with
integrated
HIV and AIDS surveillance -- United States, January 1994-June
1997.
MMWR 1998;47:309-14.
Buehler JW, Diaz T, Hersh BS, Chu SY. The Supplement to
HIV/AIDS
Surveillance Project: an approach for monitoring HIV risk
behaviors.
Public Health Rep 1996;111:134-7.
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