HIV on the Rise Among Travis Youth
Activists and medical professionals use World AIDS Day to get the word out about prevention and testing. Photo by Raymond Thompson/KUT NewsAudio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
By Tyler Pratt
Tomorrow is World AIDS Day. Today in Austin, the Department of Health and Human Services in holding a daylong AIDS conference. This year’s focus is on how HIV is affecting young people in Travis County, among whom HIV infection is increasing.
Worldwide, deaths from AIDS are down since 2005. Rates of HIV infection are also falling. But HIV is on the rise among young people, including those in Travis County.
“In the last four or five years, we’ve seen a very sharp increase in the number of cases of HIV infection in among youth,” said Joe Barnes with Austin/Travis County Health and Human Services. “We define that as between 13 and 24.”
Many are not even aware they are infected, or how deadly the virus can be. Young gay and bisexual men and African Americans are hit hardest. The CDC recommends that sexually active teens get tested for HIV.
AIDS Services of Austin works with the School of Health Administration at Texas State University in San Marcos.
“Our testing takes 20 minutes,” said Angelica Garcia-Ditta with AIDS Services. “You’re able to sit down and talk with someone about your own risk and receive your result right then and there.”
Barnes says another key to prevention is education. But he says the conservative approach to sex education in Texas public schools makes it harder to teach children about preventing HIV.
“That’s the purpose of the conference,” he said. “How do we build a strategy to identify why we’ve missed this young group, what do we need to rectify it, and what kind of action can we take to encourage testing?”
Austin/Travis County Health and Human Services offers free HIV counseling and confidential testing by appointment.
For a list of places offering testing on Saturday, click here.
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