ABCs of AIDS
Dr. John's Personal Advice
I use the ABCs of AIDS to help introduce the basics of HIV prevention to vulnerable youth wherever I go. Because most teens contract HIV sexually today (not through blood transfusions), I teach prevention education that is abstinence-based but not the most restrictive abstinence-only until marriage position. All reputable studies suggest that the "wait until marriage" argument falls on deaf ears despite promises by children that they will obey. Research further shows that teens given censored information are then at greater risk for HIV when they do begin sex. Youth must be given all the medically accurate information without censoring the biological facts. Without the honest education, unsuspecting teens make mistakes and are needlessly exposed to a deadly disease that can then be passed onto their innocent babies through mother-to-child transmission.
A = Abstinence - postponement
Based on my in-depth doctoral research dealing with adolescent psychology at Harvard, I focus on real-life issues of HIV/AIDS prevention. I tell teens it's a medical fact that there can be no sexual transmission of HIV if there is no sexual activity. Simply put, "No Sex = No AIDS" (that's something youth remember). Certainly, parents should give moral advice to their children. Yet I recognize that a majority of teenagers are choosing to have their first sexual encounters between 15 and 18, despite what adults tell them about waiting until marriage (for most young people, marriage now takes place in their mid- to late-20's and they don't wait). I prefer stressing the concept of postponement of first sex until maturing youth are older and can make wiser choices because evidence suggests postponement is healthier on many levels. Rated: Safest.
B = Be Faithful - monogamy
I urge youth who choose to begin sex against the advice of parents and adults that being faithful with one partner is safer than being promiscuous with different ones. When people have sex, they are being exposed to their lovers' past sexual partners. It's accurate to say that monogamy limits the chances of getting infected with HIV through sexual transmission. Yet it's not foolproof because not everyone tells their partners the truth about past encounters. Being faithful is the goal but not always the present reality. Rated: Safer.
C = Condoms - protection
If or when a youth become sexually active, I tell them that using a condom is better than not using one. While condoms are not 100% perfect (nothing in life can be completely guaranteed), well-manufactured condoms are a medical device offering prophylaxis against many sexually transmitted infections including HIV/AIDS. When they are used properly every time, the incidence of HIV transmission is greatly reduced. Unprotected sexual intercourse is never a safe or wise choice unless the couple is truthfully committed to monogamy. Rated: Safe.
To the ABCs message, I add these points:
It is up to parents (and their spiritual leaders) to promote a moral message to their children. My role is to give youth medically accurate information that can save innocent lives from premature death by HIV/AIDS. I believe it's our job to arm teens with all the educational tools necessary to protect themselves from this life-threatening danger.
Most young people who contract HIV get it because of sex. Yet, some become infected with HIV through sharing needles (for drugs, steroids, tattoos, body piercings and rarely now, blood transfusions). Some HIV positive youth are infected at birth and from mother's milk.
In the game of love, boys and girls lie to each other to get what they want. For many boys, sex is like a sport and they want to "score." For many girls, giving up sex is a way to get a boyfriend or be popular. I tell teens that you never can really know the history of your partner, so when you sleep with someone, it's like you are sleeping with all the sexual partners they previously had.
For most young people, abstinence-only-before-marriage is not a viable choice. They say, "Do adults really think I'm waiting until I'm 25 to have my first sex?" Adults put a higher age on consenting sex for youth than do sexually mature teens. Many parents with whom I speak might not approve of premarital sex, but they make concessions for their older unmarried children. Most teens say they believe their parents' generation had sex before marriage, but just don't want to admit it.
It is impossible to deny that sex between two loving people is highly pleasurable. Physically maturing teens know sex is enjoyable. The problem facing many parents is what to say about sex that doesn't pique undue interest in a natural and intimate bodily function. I teach prevention education that is abstinence-based but also 100% medically accurate in presenting all the relevant biological facts. From firsthand experience and my research data, I've found that an honest approach succeeds in convincing many teens to postpone first sex and tell their friends to do likewise to avoid HIV. Deception or denial under whatever guise is destined to fail with the disastrous result: more youth HIV/AIDS.
Universally, youth believe that what they do with their bodies is their business. With older youth, I can understand this feeling of sexual independence from adult strictures -- but with this caveat: follow the ABCs and postpone sex as long as possible and then, only have sex with one partner and use condoms. Because we strive to live in a free and democratic world, older teens must carefully decide for themselves what level of risk is acceptable based on medically accurate facts.
Censorship of biological information is not smart. It is counter-productive to promoting effective HIV prevention. While well-meaning but misinformed adults insist that only abstinence should be taught in high schools to their children and the children of others, research suggests that ignorance of the medically accurate facts leads to more HIV, not less. It is callous to allow young people to make mistakes that will destroy their future happiness in life - and needlessly infect their babies who never asked to be born with AIDS. Their young lives will be horribly impacted by dying painfully before ever living happily.
In the same way that HIV passes from one partner to another, PeerCorps volunteers spread the prevention news to a wider circle of friends. Because teens are greatly influenced by their friends' and schoolmates' attitudes and behaviors, it makes sense that informed and well-trained young people help save their generation from HIV/AIDS. I have extensive experience in this area. I know that peer education is highly effective and very economical. More importantly, informed young people have a greater opportunity to lead healthy and productive lives.
As a practicing Episcopalian who travels the globe and respects the right of others to believe in the faith of their parents or not, I tell youth that there is no holy book in the world that says it is Godly to deny young people full and honest access to medical information that could save their lives and that of their future children (not the Bible, the Torah, the Koran, the Teachings of Buddha, nor the Bhagavad Gita). I have faith that holy people from the past would today be preaching the prevention of HIV transmission to innocent youth.
I tell teens two important things that I know to be true in the fight against HIV/AIDS. 1) "If you love your friends, it's your responsibility to help save them from HIV;" and 2) "Shy = Die. If you're too shy to talk truthfully, friends will die." To meet the global challenge of preventing HIV/AIDS that medicine can't do, I have developed a highly effective yet economical program that has been successfully tested at the grassroots level in 80 countries. Empowering trained PeerCorps teens to share TeenAIDS' life-saving message has been my professional and personal mission since my initial research at Harvard twenty-five years ago.
I believe passionately that it is the human right of every maturing adolescent to have complete and honest access to the medically accurate facts to stop HIV. In this age of rapid globalization, I ask youth to volunteer alongside me in this innovative and humanitarian effort that knows no borders. On the streets, in schools and through cyberspace, TeenAIDS remains dedicated to saving young lives.
Will you help?
Originally based on a blog written by Dr. John on February 6, '06