nat'l: HIV/AIDS levels hit record high among young Canadians
Emilie Januszewski, The Martlet (University of Victoria)
VICTORIA (CUP) - AIDS is not the disease of Africa, homosexuals, or even of decades past. It is an ever-present danger that threatens more Canadians today than ever before.
Yet in a 2003 study by the Canadian AIDS Society, Canadian youth were found to be both less informed and less concerned about the risk of contracting the deadly disease than their same-age counterparts were in 1989.
The study found that 66 per cent of grade 7 students and 50 per cent of grade 9 students did not know there is no cure for HIV/AIDS.
A recent CTV News poll also found "youngsters think AIDS is an old person's disease, a disease that belonged to the generation before them."
But according to Health Canada, half of all new HIV infections worldwide are among young people. It's website states that youths are generally more at risk due to "risky sexual behaviours, substance abuse, and perceptions that HIV is not a threat."
Hazardous sexual behaviours include the tendency not to use condoms, which is "more common among young women than it is among young men."
Despite common misconceptions, 63 per cent of positive HIV tests in the 15-19 age range stem from heterosexual encounters. According to Health Canada's 2003 Women's Health Surveillance Report, "Females in the 15 to 29 year range accounted for 44.5 per cent of all positive HIV test reports" in Canada. This was a 41 per cent increase from 2000.
University of Victoria Health Services has noticed indicators over the last two years that the trend of high infection rates among young women may be impacting UVic.
Dr. William Dyson, director of UVic Health Services, explained that those in the health profession use chlamydia as a marker to measure the risk of HIV infection in the heterosexual community. The incidence of the sexually transmitted disease reported at UVic Health Services has risen steadily over the past two years.
The actual number of students with HIV at UVic is unknown, since not all students use the health services on campus, but Dyson says there is a small population of anonymous infected students known to him.
"STDs of all sorts are often acquired in a situation where alcohol has been consumed to the point that usual precautions of partner risk screening is not done, and then condoms are not used as well," he said.
An estimated 56,000 Canadians are living with HIV/AIDS, including approximately 17,000 people who are unaware of their infection. AIDS is caused by the HIV virus, which attacks the body's immune system and makes it susceptible to common infections and unusual cancers.
According to Nichole Downer, programs consultant for the Canadian AIDS Society, the rising rate of sexually transmitted infections at UVic and among Canadian women "matches the international trend of women becoming increasingly affected by HIV/AIDS."
Biologically, she says, women are at greater risk of contracting HIV and AIDS because the diseases are transmitted eight times more efficiently from men to women than from women to men.
The Canadian Aids Society has begun a campaign to make young women aware of their risk of infection.
Know Your Risk -- know Your Choices can be accessed online at www.cdnaids.ca/risks/choices.