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HIV/AIDS

What Educators Should Know

by Tiffany A. Chenneville & Howard M. Knoff, Ph.D.

University of South Florida

Introduction

Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is not only a health crisis, but a social crisis that has affected every sector of the United States. The number of persons with AIDS in the United States is staggering, and it continues to multiply. Furthermore, the growing number of individuals infected with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), the virus that causes AIDS, is even more disturbing. Nobody is immune because AIDS does not discriminate by sexual orientation, gender, race, socioeconomic status or age.

The failure of AIDS to discriminate by age is evident by the growing number of children and adolescents infected by HIV/AIDS. There also are scores of children who are not infected, yet are affected by HIV/AIDS because one or both of their parents, or other family members, have been diagnosed as being HIV positive or having AIDS. In fact, an increasingly large number of children have been orphaned by parents who have died from AIDS. It is estimated that over 80,000 children will have been orphaned by the year 2000 due to parental deaths caused by AIDS. Non-infected children and adolescents also may be affected through their association with peers or significant others who are HIV positive, have AIDS, or who have lost loved ones due to AIDS.

HIV/AIDS in Children and Young Adults:As of June, 1996, over a half a million (548,102) diagnosed AIDS cases had been reported to the Centers for Disease Control. Approximately 1.3% (or 7,296) were children less than thirteen years old. This is a significant increase from the 3,898 pediatric AIDS cases reported just three years before in 1992. Relative to adolescents, the incidence of AIDS also is considered to be large and increasing. In fact, AIDS is considered to be one of the leading causes of death among teenagers, and it is estimated that two individuals under the age of 25 are infected with HIV every hour. AIDS is also the leading cause of death for people between the ages of 25 to 44 in the United States. This is significant because it is believed that many of the young adults currently infected with HIV/AIDS may have contracted the HIV virus during adolescence. Thus, adolescent incidence figures may underestimate those who contract HIV but do not exhibit its symptoms until early adolescence.

Relative to gender, HIV is being contracted more rapidly by women, including young girls and adolescents, than by men. Critically, the large and increasing number of females with AIDS also increases the probability of children being born with HIV due to pre-natal or peri-natal transmission. It is estimated that 25% of infants born to HIV-infected mothers will themselves become infected. These children represent one of the fastest growing groups testing positive for the HIV virus....