YOUNG ADULTS In U.S., a false impression of HIV?

The CDC says that most of the young patients are infected through sex.
DALLAS MORNING NEWS
DALLAS -- They learned about condoms in gym class and took Magic Johnson's message from TV commercials and highway billboards.
The slogan "Practice safe sex" was as common as "Buckle up for safety" and "Say 'No' to drugs."
Yet people younger than 25 -- who make up just one-third of the U.S. population -- account for about 50 percent of all new HIV infections in this country, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Young adults are particularly vulnerable, because they're under the false impression that HIV is a manageable disease, said Adele Webb, executive director of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care.
The perception
"They see it as a chronic thing -- they think they can take a pill so what's the big deal?" she said. "The only person they know with it is Magic Johnson, and as far as they know he's doing fine."
Most young patients are infected through sex, the CDC reports. Young white gay men continue to make up a significant number of those patients. But blacks are disproportionately affected, accounting for more than half of these new infections.
The median age when an HIV patient is first diagnosed with the disease has fallen steadily -- from 35 in 1978 to 25 in 1990, according to a study in the New England Journal of Medicine. Researchers haven't tracked the median age since then. But CDC epidemiologists say the trend persists, and they continue to see younger and younger patients.
For example, last year in Dallas County, Texas, nearly 30 percent of new infections occurred in people ages 13 to 29, according to the county's Health and Human Services Department. But local AIDS specialists say that figure is too low.