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HIV/AIDS Among College Students
For years, doctors though college students were at low risk for contracting HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. But researchers at UNC Chapel Hill's medical school recently found an outbreak of the virus on 37 campuses in our state. Jonathan Perry is one of the people infected. He got the disease from the man he'd been dating.
"I'd asked him before we had sex if he was HIV positive or if he had anything I could contract, and he told me no," says Perry.
Perry thought he was protecting himself. He and his partner used a condom, but it broke. Then he found out his partner had not told the truth about his HIV status.
"And I asked him why he lied to me and he was like, well, because he figured I wouldn't want him if I knew he had it," says Perry.
Perry is a recent graduate of Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte. Researchers at UNC Chapel Hill, who are studying an HIV outbreak on college campuses, say he is one of a growing number of students diagnosed with HIV.
"What we found was very few cases in 2000, but a gradual increase from 2000 through 2003 so that by 2003 we had 30 new cases of HIV in college students that had been diagnosed that year,” says Dr. Peter Leone , who is on faculty at UNC Chapel Hill's School of Medicine and is Medical Director for the state's HIV/STD Prevention & Care Branch.
Drs. Leone and Lisa Hightow say over those four years, a total of 84 men at 37 colleges statewide contracted HIV, and by examining the men's sexual patterns and partners, they found links to similar outbreaks in five other southern states.
“When you look at the number of colleges that are involved, the number of students, we see a trend," says Dr. Hightow, also at UNC. "And our goal as public health practitioners is to prevent the numbers from getting into the range of the hundreds and the thousands."
The researchers say a critical part of that effort will be getting students to realize they are at risk. Dr. Leone says many newly diagnosed students met their sex partners in bars or over the internet, and most grossly underestimated their own vulnerability.
"Even though they were engaging in relatively high-risk sexual behavior, and what I mean by that is we're talking 30 to 40% of these students engaging in unprotected receptive anal intercourse, probably the highest risk activity you can engage in. Yet none of them - zero - thought they were likely or very likely to contract HIV."
Changing that belief has become Jonathan Perry's mission. He has spoken at national conferences and was featured on the Oprah Winfrey show talking about the college HIV outbreak.
"We have to create some drama," Perry intones. "We have to stir in some mess. We have to do nontraditional things to get nontraditional results."
Nontraditional things like tailoring prevention messages specifically to black students. Just like the larger HIV epidemic, the college outbreak disproportionately affects African Americans. State figures show 88% of the students diagnosed with HIV from 2000 to 2003 were black. The state's response is an initiative called "Project Commit to Prevent," which targets the state's 12 historically black colleges and universities or HBCUs.
"Some of the campuses have actually had contests to see who can develop the best safe sex messages," says Phyllis Gray, manager of Project Commit to Prevent. "Some campuses send out e-mail messages to the entire campus membership, things they need to know about HIV and STDs."
At Johnson C. Smith University, an HIV 101 class is mandatory for freshmen. The university hosts safe sex parties to teach all students about prevention in an easygoing atmosphere, and peer educators work to dispel myths about HIV.
"You put a face on it," says Demishea Charleston, a peer educator. “You say hey, it can happen to anybody, whether you're pretty or not, whether you're smart or not; it doesn't matter. It doesn't have a preference. Anybody can catch that disease."
Phyllis Gray puts a tough question to students and administrators attending an HIV awareness forum at North Carolina A & T in Greensboro: “If only ¼ of the organizations did one thing related to HIV prevention, how many students could be impacted?”
Forums like these are designed to give students the chance to hear the facts about HIV and suggest ways to increase AIDS awareness and testing.
"They take shuttles to the clubs, why not take shuttles to the department of health," suggests one student.
State health leaders say it's important to realize the HIV outbreak is a problem not just at HBCUs but on all campuses.
"We wanted to emphasize that it's not one campus," says Dr. Hightow. "It's not even one part of the state, and it's certainly not just one demographic. Anyone who is having unprotected sex certainly can be at risk."
That's where UNC Chapel Hill's safe sex squad comes in, using another nontraditional tactic to help reduce the risk.
"Just to go over a few rules before we go out this evening, if they'd like to engage in discussion, feel free to," a group leader tells the volunteers. "However, don't force anything on anybody."
Once a month, the students hit the streets to pass out safe sex kits to anyone who'll take them. Each kit contains condoms, along with instructions on how to use them and information about healthy relationships, abstinence, and HIV testing. Educators say this prevention effort and all the others on college campuses are important because lives are at stake.
"This is a disease that is taking the lives of young adults, taking the lives of our next generation of leaders, taking the lives of those who will contribute to this state, to your community or town," says Phyllis Gray. "If we don't work to do whatever we can to get them to embrace prevention, to get them to keep themselves safe, we will lose a generation and where will we be."
"My message to people is to stand up, take responsibility for you and your behavior," says Jonathan Perry. "It's your responsibility to save your own life." |
