There is a demon that lies hiding in dark places, undetectable except by the most advanced scientific equipment. Its greatest trick is convincing you that you’re out of reach of its poisonous claws.
But this demon is color blind. It is not sexist or racist or classist and it waits until an unsuspecting, uneducated individual is most vulnerable. Then the demon attacks. It breaks down its victim’s body slowly, sometimes taking years, sometimes even a lifetime.
Be on the lookout, though, because this demon may already have found its way into your dorm room. Don’t even try to reason with it, because if you’ve been attacked, you’ll live with the consequences for the rest of your life.
This demon is the human immunodeficiency virus. It goes by the nickname HIV. The virus is believed to be the underlying cause of AIDS. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently found that, because young adults seem to be unaware of the risks of HIV transmission through heterosexual intercourse, 90 percent of new cases among adolescents and young adults were due to heterosexual contact.
In addition, most new HIV cases among this age group were women. While infection rates in the United States are on the decline, AIDS deaths in women are rising, according to the CDCP. Women are now among those who are at the highest risk for infection.
“While the days when HIV/AIDS was exclusively a gay disease are long, long gone, public perception isn’t keeping up with the trends, which means more people- particularly women- are contracting HIV through unprotected heterosexual sex,” said Colorado AIDS Project Executive Director Deirdre Maloney in a recent press release. “While the gay community is still heavily impacted by the disease, this increasing national trend reflects that public awareness and education simply isn’t what it needs to be to help people make safer choices. What the general public can’t seem to accept is this disease can and does infect everyone… every single day.”
There is an increasing mentality, especially among young women that, “It can’t happen to me,” said Jackie Long, CAP director of public relations. However, the bottom line is that if you are sexually active, you are at risk for HIV.
“Sex is sex,” said Long. “Even oral sex is sex. A lot of young people don’t realize that they can contract HIV by participating in oral sex.”
More dangerously, said Long, young women who are afraid of the stigma that is associated with the disease refuse to get tested. Fear of finding out that they are, in fact, HIV positive, forces the issue out of priority and into the back of their minds. Then, those who have been infected continue to spread HIV and put their lives in danger because they cannot receive life-prolonging antiretroviral therapies and medications.
This mentality is present at the University of Denver, according to Abbey Vannoy, president of DU’s HIV/AIDS Awareness Committee. The committee was recently handing out condoms at DUPB’s movie night.
“Girls would say to me, ‘It’s OK, I don’t need one because I’m on birth control,’ or ‘I’m in a committed relationship,'” said Vannoy. “For women, the bigger issue is to prevent unwanted pregnancies. [HIV awareness] and [pregnancy prevention] need to be the same priority.”
Vannoy said that she wants to help people recognize the importance of education. Just because a person has been in a relationship for a certain period of time, for example, doesn’t mean that she is not at risk. The best way to be sure about whether or not you’re infected, according to Long, is to get tested.
Still think that you are not affected by HIV/AIDS? Long would disagree.
“As a woman, HIV and AIDS become my problem every time another woman gets infected,” said Long. “I suffer with her.”
