ADVOCATES FOR YOUTH

National Organizations Call for Greater Focus on the HIV/AIDS Epidemic Among Youth at World AIDS Day Press Briefing

Advocates for Youth President James Wagoner called for stepped up national prevention efforts to stem the epidemic of HIV/AIDS among youth at an afternoon press briefing today as background for World AIDS Day.

"The progress we have made is being placed at risk by three broad trends," Mr. Wagoner said. "When it comes to youth and HIV, we are failing to invest in prevention."

The U.S. spends $657 million a year on AIDS, an amount that represents one-half of spending on treatment and one-third of spending on research. Prevention spending on young people, ages 10 to 25, amounts to $130 million, or $2.50 for every young person on the U.S. "Clearly, we need to more," he said.

Despite positive trends in the delay of sexual initiation and increases in safer sex practices among sexually active teens, young people under age 25 now comprise half of all new HIV infections. Young people represent an estimated 20,000 the 40,000 new cases of HIV each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As a result, the President's Advisory Council on AIDS and the CDC have recognized youth as a critical target population for HIV/AIDS surveillance and prevention programs.

Dr. Helene Gayle, Director of the National Center for HIV, STD and TB Prevention at the CDC, provided the latest statistics on adolescents and HIV/AIDS at the National Press Club briefing. She called for the mobilization of media, film, TV, and music outlets in order to get the message out to young people. African Americans and Hispanics comprise 25% of the population, but they represent 56% of AIDS cases among males and 82% of AIDS cases among females, Dr. Gayle said.

"Complacency is a very, very dangerous thing here," she said. "The ones who pay the price are our young people."

Advocates for Youth co-sponsored the briefing with AIDS Policy Center for Children, Youth and Families to promote the 11th annual observance of World AIDS Day on December 1st. This year's World AIDS Day theme urges young people to "Be A Force for Change" in HIV prevention efforts.

"The second disturbing trend that threatens our progress is that young people's rights to information and services are under assault," Mr. Wagoner said. As evidence, he cited two Congressional actions. The first was House passage of a bill that would deny confidentiality to teens seeking contraception at public health clinics. The second was abstinence-only education, legislated by Congress in 1996, and prevents schools from providing information about condoms for the prevention of disease.

Calling for mandatory comprehensive HIV education in the 50 states and amendment of abstinence only legislation, Mr. Wagoner noted that while 94% of schools provide HIV education, fewer than half teach how to use a condom effectively to prevent HIV infection. "We have a hit and miss approach to HIV education in this country," he said.

"Too often, our policies are dictated by political agendas, rather than public health science, " he concluded. He pointed to Congressional policies that censor HIV prevention education, limit condom availability programs in high schools and the denial of federal funding for needle exchange programs.

Condom availability programs are supported by such prestigious organizations as the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Institutes of Medicine. Yet only 418 of 20,000 high schools have condom availability programs and 74 percent of school-based health centers are restricted from dispensing any form of contraception.

David Harvey, executive director of the AIDS Policy Center on Children, Youth and Families, advocated for a coordinated federal research agenda on youth and HIV/AIDS, as well as increased Congressional spending on Ryan White CARE Act programs targeting youth. "Not enough young people are benefiting from the AIDS revolution," he said.

Margaret Campbell, a youth spokesperson who was one of only two speakers at a recent White House Conference on Women and AIDS, bemoaned the sensationalized misrepresentations of HIV/AIDS treatments in the media. "As a result, too many young people think 'If I get it (HIV infection), I can just be treated.'"

Much has changed in the battle against this debilitating disease. Experts have learned effective HIV prevention strategies for the population at large and with several high risk groups. Advances in medical treatment now enable HIV positive persons to live longer, healthier lives. However, threats to the progress remain, and recent changes in federal, state and local policies bode ill for the health of millions of young people in this country.

Advocates for Youth has worked to safeguard adolescent sexual health since 1980 through public education, training and advocacy for the best practices in the field to thousands of organizations, youth-serving professionals, and policy makers. AIDS Policy Center conducts policy research, education and advocacy on behalf of 350 health care projects funded under the Ryan White CARE Act.

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Note to Editors and Producers: For more information or to set up an interview with adolescent sexuality experts, please contact Bill Barker at (202) 419-3420.

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