By
Katie Clark
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Despite no dramatic increase in diagnoses, young people still need access to education, resources
The number of diagnosed HIV cases per year in America has not decreased - especially in teens and college students, who need more education about the epidemic, a UA health educator said.
About 40,000 new cases of HIV are consistently reported each year, with 50 percent of those cases affecting people under the age of 25, and 75 percent striking people under the age of 30, said Alan Nyitray, director of prevention at the Southern Arizona AIDS Foundation.
"Younger people are less likely to see threats to their health as an immediate problem," Nyitray said.
Sexual experimentation, said both Nyitray and Lee Ann Hamilton, a health educator at the University of Arizona Campus Health, is one of the biggest causes of new HIV cases in the under-30 age group.
"Many young people are experimenting," Hamilton said. "They are less likely to have a committed partner, they are less likely to know about resources."
Nyitray said the promising results of new treatments offer hope to those who contract HIV and help them live longer - meaning there are more people living with the disease, which is why the number of cases has not gone down.
Despite the amount of people who live with HIV or AIDS, Hamilton said not all young people may be aware of the AIDS-infected population.
"They don't know anyone who has (HIV), they don't see people who are real sick or dying," she added. "They think it may not happen to people in their age group."
Most young people are not blind to the risk of irresponsible sexual activity, though, Nyitray said.
"Younger people do have a sense of sophistication about the risk," he said.
Still, Hamilton said, educating younger people about risk is important.
"They need to know where to get tested," she said. "If they're having sex, they need to think about being at risk."
