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American Public Health Term Paper

¶ … teenage AIDS. The writer explores the topic and presents some of the statistics as well as programs in the fight against teenage AIDS in the U.S. There were four sources used to complete this paper. The AIDS epidemic continues to ravage the nation though the targeted growth areas are shifting. At one time it was considered a gay man's disease, then it shifted to be an adult disease. Today there is a growing teen population contacting the disease and efforts are underway to educate and eradicate the disease among the youth of the nation.

The incidence of teen AIDS is growing. The median period for the disease to incubate before showing itself is 10 years, which means there are many more infected that the medical community is aware of. In many teens and young adults it will not produce symptoms until the person is in their adult life, and have had a chance to infect many others (AIDS, 1994).

Today, 25% of all new reported AIDS cases are among people between the ages of 13 and 21, Johnson said (Groves, 1998). Two young people are infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, every hour of every day (Groves, 1998)."

One of the issues involved in the fight against teenage AIDS is the fact that they believe they are invincible. Teenagers are in a precarious position because they believe they will live forever, and that by the time they have to worry about it a cure will be found. It is...

It is the unfortunate combination of cockiness, immaturity and freedom that place teens at a tremendous risk for the disease to strike. Teenagers believe each other. They are old enough to choose to become sexually active yet they are too young to have become jaded from being lied to before. This creates a killing field of AIDS in teens because they don't believe they should be careful with those they know.
Teenagers must be targeted now for AIDS testing and "aggressive treatment" because "adolescents will continue to be infected with this disease until immunization is distributed. And that will take years, even if we get a vaccine today (Groves, 1998)."

Recent studies show there has been a 12% increase in the incidences of teens testing positive for AIDS. While other studies show a decrease in the incidence of AIDS nation wide teens are still having unprotected sex.

The treatment of AIDS in teens is not as prevalent as it could be because the teens are not getting tested until they have symptoms which could be delayed by ten years. The disease lays dormant in the body for a number of years, and teens are not coming in and getting tested the way they should be. This causes the spread to continue because infected teens are having sex without realizing they…

Sources used in this document:
References

BOB GROVES, Staff Writer, MORE HIV TESTING URGED FOR TEENAGERS., The Record (Bergen County, NJ), 06-25-1998, pp a01.

Author not available, The growing specter of AIDS in the young.. Vol. 17, Medical Update, 03-01-1994, pp 3(1).

Michelle B. Mueller; Special To The Post-Dispatch, TEEN-AGERS TEACH FACTS, DISPELL MYTHS ABOUT HIV AND AIDS., St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 12-11-2000, pp 6.
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