2008 Woodie Awards
HIV a Big Problem for College Students
Cortney Slaughter
Issue date: 3/26/08 Section: Features
College is the starting point for people who want to advance academically and financially in their lives. Those four college years are often full of papers, deadlines and part-time jobs, but whoever said that you can't have a little fun? No one. In fact, college (to some) may be little more than partying... which often leads to sexual endeavors. Even after taking Health 101, a great amount of college students seem to either lack knowledge of sex education or, even if they do know, don't care to use protection when they have sex. "What's the big deal with college students having sex?" one might ask. The big deal is that students are not thinking before acting, and that can lead to grave consequences. What can start out as fun can lead to sexually transmitted diseases such as herpes, gonorrhea and the HIV/AIDS virus.
According to the Center for Disease Control, 1 in 1500 college students are HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) positive. The largest groups of Americans infected with HIV are teenagers and young adults. Furthermore, in the Youth Report of 2000, the White House Office of National AIDS Policy research states that "In the U.S, it is estimated that 2 young people (Age 13-25) are infected with HIV each hour." To add on to the madness, HIV transforms into AIDS. Last year, 2007, it was estimated that 33.2 million adults and children were living with HIV and AIDS. With these facts, it should be clear that there is a "big deal" when it comes to colleges students having sex.
Most of the stories of HIV or AIDS in the college setting are those where one of the partners did not know that their other partner had HIV, or where there was no protection used. In either case, these two people are now a part of the statistics among students in college and universities with HIV.
The million-dollar question now is, "how does it stop?" How can the HIV and AIDS rate within the colleges and university decrease in the efforts to stop it? Some believe that more lectures on safe sex should be conducted while others believe that more schools should be divided by men and women (similar to Morehouse and Spellman). There is no definite answer to this question but every thoughtful answer or solution to this problem helps. Truth be told, the solution to this problem lies in the hands of those who help it. In other words, the power to stop this epidemic in college students relies on the decisions of the college students. Will you continue the problem or help solve it? The choice is yours to make, choose wisely because it's better to be safe than sorry.
According to the Center for Disease Control, 1 in 1500 college students are HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) positive. The largest groups of Americans infected with HIV are teenagers and young adults. Furthermore, in the Youth Report of 2000, the White House Office of National AIDS Policy research states that "In the U.S, it is estimated that 2 young people (Age 13-25) are infected with HIV each hour." To add on to the madness, HIV transforms into AIDS. Last year, 2007, it was estimated that 33.2 million adults and children were living with HIV and AIDS. With these facts, it should be clear that there is a "big deal" when it comes to colleges students having sex.
Most of the stories of HIV or AIDS in the college setting are those where one of the partners did not know that their other partner had HIV, or where there was no protection used. In either case, these two people are now a part of the statistics among students in college and universities with HIV.
The million-dollar question now is, "how does it stop?" How can the HIV and AIDS rate within the colleges and university decrease in the efforts to stop it? Some believe that more lectures on safe sex should be conducted while others believe that more schools should be divided by men and women (similar to Morehouse and Spellman). There is no definite answer to this question but every thoughtful answer or solution to this problem helps. Truth be told, the solution to this problem lies in the hands of those who help it. In other words, the power to stop this epidemic in college students relies on the decisions of the college students. Will you continue the problem or help solve it? The choice is yours to make, choose wisely because it's better to be safe than sorry.
Be the first to comment on this story