A staggering number of reported cases of HIV contraction at several North Carolina colleges has spurred researchers to look into the matter, leading them to conclude that college campuses are “high-transmission areas” for HIV.
Since 2001, 25 male college students within a three-county radius of each other have contracted the disease, a number that far exceeds the normal number of cases within a given population.
Such figures caught the eye of researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and at the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, who have now extended their studies beyond the three counties to all North Carolina counties. Once again, the scientists found an abnormal number of cases (54) since 2001. The Researchers have yet to complete the statewide analysis.
Of the 25 students who were infected, 22 were African American and 22 of the infections resulted from homosexual acts.
Scott Spear, associate professor of pediatrics and director of clinical services at the University of Wisconsin’s University Health Services, notes that such demographics are common in the South and in large cities that hold higher populations of African Americans, those most affected by HIV. In other areas of the country, however, the numbers have not reached such a high level.
“It looks to us that the general population has been relatively flat, but there are episodic cases,” Spear said, adding that the number of reported cases has remained very low at UW.
Despite the uneven distribution of infected cases, Spear cautions that HIV is an omnipresent threat on any college campus. With students practicing unsafe sex, sometimes with multiple partners, and using needle-injected drugs and engaging in binge-drinking, a college environment can create a haven for HIV.
In addition to such behaviors, UW professor of sociology John Delamater noted that students do not always think of the possibility of contracting the disease, nor of its ramifications.
“They do not take action to prevent it. There is a widespread belief that ‘this won’t happen to me,'” Delamater said. “College students just don’t worry about that.”
UW junior Sofia Gaudioso has seem similar attitudes among her peers.
“Personally, I think that the majority of the student body is fairly unaware of how widespread HIV has become in this country,” Gaudioso said. “You very rarely hear discussion on the topic and it seems as if most people have almost completely forgotten about the growing threat of the disease.”
With the constant threat of contraction and seeming lack of student awareness, Spear and Delamater pointed out that UHS and UW community are working to ensure student protection from the disease.
“There a lot of prevention methods we try to dispense. We hope to turn it into something we can manage more,” Spear said, noting that primary prevention programs like Sex Out Loud, condom promotion and testing services at UHS are doing just that.
