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HIV/AIDS: A Teenager’s Perspective for Future Prevention
As children we learn many life lessons such as telling the difference between right and wrong and how to
keep your body healthy. As we age, we keep several of these values and encounter new influences that provoke us
to try new things. Risk is always involved when trying new things and our nation is in trouble because our citizens
are dying from trying activities that they know are harmful. Some examples of these actions, which are cultural
hazards include smoking, obesity, alcohol use, drug use, and infectious diseases like HIV/AIDS. Everyone should
try to learn about these cultural hazards because our country is not doing well in the area of public health and it’s
due to the lack of knowledge and risky behavior of our citizens. One cultural hazard I think we need to continue
focusing on in the gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender (GLBT) community is HIV/AIDS. This infectious disease is
affecting a large part of our country’s population and we as a nation need to come together to help prevent this
epidemic from spreading.
HIV/AIDS has become a worldwide pandemic because it has killed over 36.1 million adults worldwide
since it was officially discovered in 1981. In 2007, the disease killed approximately 2.1 million people and
infected 2.5 million here in America. Everyone is at risk of getting this disease because HIV/AIDS does not
discriminate; however, in America the disease is most commonly found in gay men and African Americans. It has
become one of the top three killers of our African American men and the number one killer of our African
American women and homosexuals. The most common transmission is caused by unprotected sex and it’s often
found in our younger citizens because they are not taking heed to all the safer sex messages. North America has a
growing number of cases everyday, but Sub-Saharan Africa is suffering the most from this disease. 68% of SubSaharan Africa at the end of 2007 had HIV/AIDS and I believe is all due to their lack of education about the
disease, as well as their lack of resources for prevention. The unlike Sub-Saharan Africa, we have the resources to
make this disease stop and we have to use them.
Recently I’ve had the chance to review and take an in depth look at our world and its environmental
issues in my Environmental Science class in school this year. I have become slightly more worried about our
country, its people, and their health. This disease is a very important to me because it could affect me or anyone I
know one day. Being a homosexual male is hard as an African American, because it’s still not really accepted by
the general population. I know this disease will come up in my future, because I’ll be looking for a partner
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eventually. If I want to be with someone of my same ethnicity, the probability of them having HIV/AIDS is higher
than any other group of individuals. Therefore, if we don’t stop this problem now, it could still be around after the
people in my generation have children too. I don’t want to be worried about this avoidable issue if I become a
parent. My plan to help prevent the continual spread of HIV/AIDS is to teach the youth, homosexual or not, about
the disease in the early stages of life and I think the best way to educate our young children is to change the types
of media they are exposed to.
At an early age books, movies, television, and the Internet influence how children think and act in a
variety of ways. As children grow these media influences become even more powerful. The media uses its
influence on children to market items and influence a child's desires making them think that they need certain
items to be popular or cool. We need to change the messages that the media is putting out about what is “cool” to
what is important. I believe if we teach children about sex at an early age it will make them more mature about
seeing semi-sexual references while they are growing up. One organization that I know, is funded by BET, Black
Entertainment Television and the Kaiser Family Foundation, and it’s called “RAP-IT-UP.” They focus their
message on the young teens of the African American community by talking about relationships, always wrapping
“it” up before having sex, getting tested for HIV/AIDS annually if you are having sex, and how to prevent the
spread of the HIV/AIDS disease. The organization has a list of numerous events that they hold and they have their
live television programs promoting the RAP-IT-UP because it has had a big impact on the young African
American community. I think we need to have more programs that can reach the youth and be informative without
being overbearing. We need to make sure that our youth here in America, no matter what sexual preference they
have, should know the risks of partaking in cultural hazards, having sex including teen pregnancy or receiving an
STD like HIV/AIDS, and convince them the repercussions of practicing safe sex is one method to living a long
healthy life.