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NC Now: HIV/AIDS on Campus
For years, doctors thought 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/HIV Positive: 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.
Jonathan Perry thought he was protecting himself from HIV. He and his partner used a condom, but it broke. And he found out in January 2001, his partner had not told the truth about his HIV status.
Jonathan Perry: 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.
Perry is a recent graduate of Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte. Researchers at UNC Chapel Hill say he's one of a growing number of college students diagnosed with HIV.
Dr. Lisa Hightow/UNC-CH Medical School: The investigation started because we noticed there were two cases of acute HIV infection in college students in North Carolina, specifically in the Triangle area. Both of those cases were in black males.
That led Dr. Lisa Hightow to review the state's records for young men diagnosed with HIV between January 2000 and December 2003, under the direction of Dr. Peter Leone.
Dr. Peter Leone/UNC-CH Medical School & Medical Director, HIV/STD Prevention & Care Branch: 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.
Drs. Leone and Hightow say over those four years, a total of 84 men at 37 colleges statewide contracted HIV. And a sexual partner network linked them to outbreaks in five other states.
Dr. Hightow: And when you look at the number of colleges that are involved, the number of students, we see a trend. 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.
Dr. Leone: 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.
Perry: We have to create some drama. We have to stir in some mess. We have to do nontraditional things to get nontraditional results.
State figures show 88% of the students diagnosed with HIV from 2000 to 2003 were black. The majority were men who have sex with men or men who have sex with both men and women, which is commonly known as being on the "down low."
Perry: One guy I spoke with, well I've been doing this for 3 or 4 years and I like it. Well what about your girlfriend? She doesn't have to know. She doesn't have to know, but don't you think it's fair because you have the right to choose who you sleep with that she should have the right to choose who she sleeps with.
Researchers at UNC Medical School and the Centers For Disease Control say they need to learn more about men on the down low and develop prevention strategies to reach them and their female partners.
Maya Gibbons/Counseling & Testing Director, Johnson C. Smith University: It's really important, particularly with something this crucial, to do whatever it takes to get people's attention.
Johnson C. Smith's counseling and testing director Maya Gibbons says the university now mandates an HIV 101 class for freshmen and hosts safe sex parties to teach all students about prevention in an easygoing atmosphere.
Maya Gibbons: I think freshmen have a lot of decisions to make that first year, particularly that first semester. Some of them can get them into trouble if they're making wrong decisions, so we want to give them the opportunity to make those right decisions.
Gibbons also works with about 20 peer educators like Demishea Charleston, who say it's their job to dispel myths about HIV.
Demishea Charleston/Peer Educator: That's the thing I like about being a peer educator is you put a face on it. 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
North Carolina's Department of Health and Human Services is working to spread that message on all the state's campuses. The federal government has pumped several million dollars in grants into the effort. Part of the work centers around "Project Commit To Prevent," which targets the state's 12 historically black colleges and universities, or HBCUs.
Phyllis Gray/Project Commit to Prevent: Some of the campuses have actually had contests to see who can develop the best safe sex messages. Some campuses send out e-mail messages to the entire campus membership, things they need to know about HIV and STDs.
Project director Phyllis Gray says forums like one held at North Carolina A & T in Greensboro also give students the chance to hear the facts and suggest solutions.
Student: They take shuttles to the clubs, why not take shuttles to the Department of Health?
Gray says the state is working to increase the availability of HIV testing on HBCU campuses, and the project wants to reach students for whom traditional prevention tactics haven't worked. Gray and others are also quick to point out the HIV outbreak is a problem not just at HBCUs but on all campuses.
Dr. Lisa Hightow: We wanted to emphasize that it's not one campus. 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 the safe sex squad comes in.
Student: Just to go over a few rules before we go out this evening…
Once a month, students from UNC-Chapel Hill hit the streets to pass out safe sex kits to anyone who'll take them.
Student: Would you like a safe sex kit?
Each kit contains condoms along with instructions on how to use them and information about healthy relationships, abstinence, and HIV testing. Dr. Lisa Hightow says the key is making testing available for all students in our state.
Dr. Lisa Hightow: We know that on college campuses, many students don't get tested either because they don't consider themselves at risk or they don't feel the testing is available to them. It's not free. It's not confidential. It's only offered one day a week, so we need to offer testing that is convenient to the students, that they will use.
Phyllis Gray: 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. 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.
Jonathan Perry: My message to people is to stand up, take responsibility for you and your behavior. It's your responsibility to save your own life. |
