‘Can’t Happen to Me’ View Raises AIDS Risk in Young

Despite extensive knowledge of the primary routes of AIDS transmission, teen-agers are continuing to engage in activities that put them at risk for contracting the deadly disease, according to reports released Thursday.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and the public-interest Children’s Defense Fund urged that education and prevention programs be started as quickly as possible to discourage dangerous behavior by adolescents that may place them at continued risk for the disease.

The CDC surveyed students in 9th through 12th grades last spring in eight states and seven big-city school systems, including Los Angeles, and found that “they clearly know the primary sources of transmission,” which include sex and intravenous drug use through the sharing of contaminated needles. Although intravenous drug use was low, 28.6% to 76.4% of those questioned, depending on the area, reported having had sexual intercourse at least once.

Transmission Modes

Further, the CDC said, many were also misinformed about other transmission modes, mistakenly believing that the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) can also be spread through mosquito bites, toilets and giving blood.

In Los Angeles, for example, 86.9% of those surveyed knew correctly that shaking hands cannot transmit the virus. But a surprising 72.2% still believed that AIDS could be transmitted by giving blood, 71.1% thought AIDS could be spread through insect bites and 54.2% believed that AIDS could be contracted by using public toilets.

At the same time, 91.2% knew that AIDS was spread through intravenous drug use, and 93.8% knew that AIDS was also transmitted through sexual intercourse.

“Departments of education should implement programs to correct misperceptions about HIV transmission, to reduce behaviors resulting in HIV infection and to assess periodically whether these misperceptions and behaviors change among high school students over time,” the CDC said.

In a second report released Thursday, the Children’s Defense Fund called adolescents “the next generation of AIDS patients” and warned that they are “considerably more at risk” for the deadly disease than current statistics indicate.

Although fewer than 1,000 cases of AIDS have been reported among 13- to 21-year-olds, more than 15,000 persons between the ages of 20 and 29 had been diagnosed with AIDS as of September, the fund report said. Because there can be as much as eight years between the time of infection and the onset of illness, this means that many of them probably were infected as teen-agers, the study said.

The fund report said that, although teen-agers are informed about AIDS, they frequently have an “it can’t happen to me” attitude that “does not reflect reality.”

“They overwhelmingly reject the idea of (sexual) abstinence, are skeptical about monogamy and are ambivalent about condom use,” said Kay Johnson, author of the report.

When adjusted for sexual activity rates, teen-agers have the highest reported rates of sexually transmitted diseases of any age group, the study said, calling the finding “especially disturbing.” It estimated that one in seven teen-agers has a sexually transmitted disease, “which reflects the kind of behavior that increases risk of HIV infection.”

Teen Prevention

“Thus, changing the course of the epidemic will require prevention of HIV transmission during the teen years,” Johnson said. “Prevention of AIDS cases beyond 1995 must begin now.”

The fund report stressed home, school and community-based AIDS education as a key to preventing transmission of the virus among adolescents. One-third of parents with children ages 10 to 17 have never discussed AIDS with their children, the study said.

“Educating youths about the HIV epidemic will require involvement of all segments of society, but it places a special burden on families,” Johnson said.

She added: “It may be tempting to dismiss the risks teens face in the HIV epidemic, given their low incidence of AIDS cases. However, there can be little doubt that millions of teens engage in high risk behavior. Furthermore, because millions more may not be sexually active or use drugs, the time for implementation on an intensive prevention plan is now.”