It started in the 80s with a whisper. Two decades later, it's the sob of a wife watching her husband in writhe in pain. It's the cooing of a baby put up for adoption because of his disease. It's the wail of a mother, burying her only daughter who just lost a battle in the deadliest war on the planet. Meanwhile, college students unaware of their own immortality believe that they will not be affected by this epidemic.
First reported in the US in 1981, AIDS has now infected more than 1 million people in the country, with 30 million people infected worldwide. In some African countries, over 20 percent of the population is infected. The epidemic is growing most rapidly among minority populations and is a leading killer of African-American males - that's six times higher in African-Americans and three times higher in Hispanics than among whites.
Infection among females has risen. AIDS is now being recognized as the fourth leading cause of death in women while remaining one of the leading causes of death in males 25 to 44 years of age. Anyone can be infected, as the disease is no longer affecting any specific portion of the population.
The AIDS virus can be transmitted from one person to another through several methods, which include: contact with contaminated blood or blood products, the sharing of needles or syringes, sexual contact, or from mother to infant.
Sexually, the virus can be spread through body fluids including sperm, unprotected intercourse with an infected partner, artificial insemination with semen from an infected person, or oral sex. And if you already have another sexually transmitted disease such as syphilis, herpes, chlamydia, gonorrhea, or bacterial vaginosis, you are more susceptible to acquiring HIV infection during sex with an infected partner.
It is also important to recognize the ways HIV is not spread. While HIV has been detected in the saliva of infected individuals, no evidence exists that the virus is spread by contact with saliva. There is no evidence that HIV can be transmitted through sweat, tears, urine, or feces.
Furthermore, the virus can not be transmitted through touching an HIV-infected person, kissing, embracing or cuddling, sharing utensils, donating blood when sterile needles are used, or touching objects such as toilet seats, door knobs, or clothes.
Typically HIV is not a quick killer. The virus does not immediately cause AIDS; it can lay dormant for years after infection. In untreated cases, the average time for the disease to develop is 10 years or more.
An illness known as HIV infection is associated with an acute illness in some infected persons soon after infection. This illness begins within one to three weeks of exposure, and usually involves some combination of symptoms that can be mistaken for other viral infections, especially since the symptoms usually disappear shortly after they appear.
Members of the Massachusetts HIV Counseling and Testing Hotline have compiled suggestions for HIV protection. Even though abstinence is the best method, not everyone adheres to that system, the organization says. More realistic safe-sex suggestions made by the hotline include always keeping a latex condom with you while knowing where to get more, practicing putting on a condom privately well before having sex, making condom usage a habit when having sex, and using a new latex condom every time you have sex.
The advice is only intensified for those currently using no protection. The Centers for Disease Control acknowledges that many people, especially college students, are having unprotected sex. "Alcohol and drugs [should] be removed from the equation," advised a spokesman for the CDC. "Most unprotected sex happens when people have their inhibitions marred by this popular party ritual of getting inebriated and having sex."
Dr. Margaret Higham, Tufts University Health Services Medical Director, recommends testing if a student is in any way at risk for contracting HIV. "If a student believes that they might be infected then they should get tested," Higham said. "[Someone] who is sexually active might be only sleeping with one partner, but how many partners has that person had? They are essentially sleeping with every partner that their current partner has had in the past."
And Health Services has the ability to test for HIV. But while the $40 test is relatively inexpensive, the fact that the test was preformed - along with the results of the test - will appear on student records.
"If [students] are worried about results appearing on their health records, they can go to free clinics where the results will not end up on their health records," Higham said. "The important issue is that the test is preformed so that if it is positive, treatments can be pursued."
But Higham insists that no amount of protection can ensure students' safety. "There is no such thing as safe sex. There is only safer sex," Higham said. "Abstinence is the only foolproof way."
