Opinion: The New Face of AIDS Is Young and Female

by Rob Curry, Senior Vice President for External Affairs, Upper Hudson Planned Parenthood

ALBANY, NY (12/01/2010)(readMedia)-- Thirty years after the first diagnoses of what would later be called AIDS among gay men in the United States, the face of HIV/AIDS has changed radically. One in three new HIV infections in the United States and half of new infections globally are among young people, and girls are particularly at risk.

Why? Because the majority of the world's youth, especially young girls, are entering adulthood without the knowledge, power and tools they need to protect themselves from disease and from becoming parents before they are ready. These young people don't have what they need because people in positions of responsibility are uncomfortable talking about young people having sex, especially when it means talking directly with young people.

We must and can do better. On World AIDS Day, we must stand strong with youth around the world to demand that they have what they need and deserve to protect themselves and their health - starting with quality sex education, access to condoms and birth control.

A number of obstacles stand in the way of these simple goals. First and foremost is a reluctance to face adolescent sexuality head on, both at home and around the world. Nearly half of American teens are sexually active, and in many developing countries marriage during adolescence is the norm. Why deny reality and keep potentially lifesaving information from these young people, leaving them defenseless?

Second, funding for HIV prevention and services in the United States and overseas too often remains needlessly segregated from other reproductive health programs. On the ground, this can mean a woman has to go to one clinic for HIV services and another for family planning, or worse, that women seeking obstetric and family planning services are not always offered HIV screening, while women seeking HIV services are not offered contraception. As taxpayers, we should demand our money be spent more efficiently. HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment services should be offered in the same settings as family planning and other sexual and reproductive health services, as they are at all Planned Parenthood health centers.

Third, young people lack access to information and services. Upper Hudson Planned Parenthood is waging an uphill battle to address these barriers. Each year, hundreds of young people receive information about HIV and AIDS at UHPP as a routine part of birth control and annual exam visits. The UHPP S.T.A.R.S. (Seriously Talking About Responsible Sex) program recruits and trains high school students to become peer educators who then provide information and safer sex supplies to sexually active youth at weekly teen clinics in Albany and Hudson. The peer educators also staff a drop-in program after school at Albany High School and present educational programs to classrooms and community groups. This week, they will lead group tours and present workshops to student groups as part of the New York State World AIDS Day Commemoration events at the Empire State Plaza. But we still only touch a small percentage of the young people who need this information.

It remains clear that access to both reproductive health services and comprehensive sex education can be a powerful formula in reducing the number of new HIV cases among young people and women in New York State. Our commitment to this work is driven by the knowledge that helping young people avoid pregnancy and disease early in life enables them to stay in school, pursue meaningful careers and benefit all of society. Young people need help to avoid both HIV infection and teen pregnancy. And to be able to provide this, we need increased funding for sexual and reproductive health programs that cover both family planning and HIV.

To secure a healthy future for us all, we must invest in youth today.

Rob Curry is UHPP's Senior Vice President for External Affairs, and has been an HIV educator and activist for over twenty five years