The Kids Aren't All Right: 60 Percent of Youths With HIV Don't Even Know It

Back in 1985, an Indiana teenager named Ryan White catalyzed public understanding of and education about HIV and AIDS. White’s HIV infection through a blood transfusion, and the legal battle over his middle school’s refusal to let him attend classes, made Americans understand that anyone—not just gay people—could get the disease.

But 30 years later, despite all the work White, who died in 1990, and countless other AIDS activists have done, the dream of an AIDS-free generation remains elusive. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a full 25 percent of new HIV infections are of young people ages 13 to 24—that’s 1,000 young people every month—and 60 percent of them don’t even know they have it. That’s why the second annual National Youth HIV and AIDS Awareness Day—today, April 10—is turning the spotlight on the Millennial face of the disease.

Launched by the nonprofit Advocates for Youth, the day seeks to educate the public on both the impact of HIV and AIDS on youths and the way Millennials are stepping up to fight the epidemic. The organization does that by promoting what it calls the 3Rs: rights, respect, and responsibility.

Teens and young adults, says the Advocates for Youth website, have the right to comprehensive sex education, and they deserve respect and should be involved in the programs and policies that affect them. Society is also responsible for giving them “the tools they need to safeguard their sexual health, and young people have the responsibility to protect themselves from too-early childbearing and sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV.”

Many school-based sex education programs are a far cry from the 3Rs. Too many teachers still rely on shame-based tactics like comparing girls who have premarital sex to a dirty, passed-around York Peppermint Pattie. Not teaching these girls how to protect themselves has horrifying consequences. According to the CDC's statistics, 86 percent of new HIV infections among young women between the ages of 13 and 24 are due to heterosexual sex.

To counteract this lack of education, every year Advocates for Youth also trains 2,000 youth ambassadors. These ambassadors are teens and young adults who educate their Millennial peers about sexual health in class, at lunch, or after school. Let's hope these youth activists and other HIV education advocates can change the attitudes and behaviors that result in young people continuing to be infected. If that happens, one day that hope for an AIDS-free generation will be a reality.