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1. The U.S. Government’s CDC is now recommending that all teens, 13 and up, be tested regularly for HIV at your doctor’s office. Do you think this is a good idea?
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Teens, help Dr. John's research by taking the Short Survey. By completing the Long Survey in full, you receive a small gift from Dr. John and TeenAIDS.
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| Author: |
host |
Created: |
11/29/2005 |
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| Dr. John urges youth to take responsibility by talking honestly to their peers. He challenges governments and adult society to educate their youth because: "It's the human right of every maturing adolescent to have complete access to the medical facts. |
| My Love/Hate Relationship with Technology |
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By host on 3/8/2006 |
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I did my Masters of Science (M.S. of V.S.) at MIT in Cambridge. That degree might make me appear like a brilliant scientist but nothing could be further from the truth. Truth be told, I need help inserting a plug in a socket (well, okay, my eyesight isn't as good as before and I hate to get down on my knees except in church). Let me tell you about three pet peeves of recent technology hassles.
Bank theft
click here for a newspaper article on the Bank Fraud
Yesterday, I got an urgent call (well, actually it was a message) from Sovereign Bank's ATM Fraud division. A young woman named Luc left a message in a calm but nevertheless urgent voice, that the TeenAIDS bank account had six recent, suspicious bank withdrawals. Stolen was almost $2,400 in three days from various ATMs in Ontario (shame on you scum, for ripping off a charity - and from Canada to boot, the birth place of my mother).
Luckily, Luc cancelled my card that was being misused. I had to go down to the local bank, sign an affidavit of unauthorized ATM card use and take it to the Police station. There has been a rash of VISA debit card withdrawals reported in the papers lately. I really didn't think TeenAIDS would be affected but I wasn't surprised either. Someone, somehow, has figured out a sneaky way to manufacture bogus ATM cards with the key information on the magnetic strip.
My biggest surprise was when I discovered that the card number they were using had been cancelled by me previously. Sovereign can't seem to explain why the money was illegally withdrawn using a cancelled card, except to say, "maybe the card wasn't cancelled" due to a technical problem. Oh, great!?! Supposedly, the money will be returned to our account soon. As a non-profit, we live "close to the margin." We raise and spend money on bills that need to be paid on time. I told the bank not to bounce any checks during this period. We'll see
Site crash
On Tuesday afternoon , February 28 (the day after my B-Day), we put 8,000 postcards in the mail announcing the launch of our newly revamped website. The mailing involved considerable expense. High schools and university libraries were the main recipients of the announcement along with a number of AIDS organizations. The color postcard is a stunner (click to see it) and has garnered a lot of favorable attention. The message side touted the high tech features of our website.
Two days later, the cards began arriving locally - by Friday, the bulk of the cards were being delivered nationwide. I had just returned from a meeting with Harvard film/video teaching assistant Pacho Velez who is working on creating two DVDs from my overseas footage of PeerCorps trainings (at the request of TeenAIDS Board member Robb Moss, his Harvard professor of film). Progress on the films was moving along. I was feeling great.
However, as soon as I got back to the office in the afternoon and opened my emails to read what I had missed in my absence, I got shocking news. The first one was from California I think. A man named Daniel said that he had received our postcard but when he went to visit us, there was NO website - evidently, it was lost in cyberspace! I panicked. Most of the staff had left for the weekend. Did I ever lose my cool! After raising the funds to post the cards about the expensively-revamped website, the bleeping site had gone AWOL. I placed frantic calls to our web team. They got on it immediately contacting the server who wasn't readily available (what can you expect for $10 a month?). In my exasperation, I grabbed my Yellow Lab and gave him a few vigorous hugs to calm myself down (isn't a loyal pet incredible?).
As it turned out, the server had shut us down suddenly because of technological problems, with only minutes of notice that no one in the office saw until Daniel sent his email. Everything was resolved three hours later but how many people looking for our site gave up when they couldn't find us, perhaps never to return again like the impulse buyers that we are? After years of rarely interrupted service, we went down on the most important day due to technology problems (are you getting an inkling of my frustration with technology?).
Domain name porno
By even reporting this, I'm probably setting in motion a few more hits for a despicable site and its purveyors of cheap smut. Although I shouldn't really blame this domain problem on technology, I will.
Our original website was posted in 1994, in the pioneer years of the internet. I remember being given html templates that I used to post much of its content based on my Harvard doctoral thesis. The original TeenAIDS-PeerCorps site used the URL suffix ".com" that was available then. However, by 1997 when TeenAIDS was officially organized as a non-profit charity, I gave up my original URL suffix for ".org" that was then being made available. Because I was paying all the start-up bills myself, I couldn't justify paying for extra domain names and URLs. I never imagined that there would be a downside to this decision that continues to hurt our efforts to help save teen lives from HIV/AIDS.
Imagine my surprise when I received an email from a young woman who was greatly disappointed and upset that my old URL, listed on the information cards that I pass out everywhere I go, brought her to a porno site! I checked and she was right. TeenAIDS' original domain name was re-sold to pornographers who liked the fact that it was getting traffic after its first three years and because it had the word "teen" in it. Upon investigation, I found out there was some connection to x-rated porn sites out of Lithuania and the Netherlands. I couldn't believe it.
I tried contacting the bums but they would do nothing to return the original domain name unless I paid a thousand dollars. Recently, I tried again to reason with hem, but it's just business to them. This is money that I didn't have then and still don't now, being a passionate volunteer in this battle against youth AIDS (who doesn't accept my annual salary when the limited monies raised from our wonderful donors go to our education programs).
Conclusion? Technology is both a blessing and a bummer. Modern advances allow this website to replicate my work a thousand-fold, every hour of every day in every corner of the world. Wow! When you think about it, technology is amazing. Thousands of young lives are getting life-saving information that they don't receive in school or from the media.
But what a headache it can be too.
Special Thanks
I want to thank and recognize the excellent web design team that has produced our revamped website. Kyle Laughlin of California originally designed our website in 2002 through an in-kind donation from his employer Sapient Corporation. In the summer of 2005, Kyle and I talked and agreed on a new version that would offer the latest technological advances to deliver our educational content globally. He is the chief person responsible for this site and works for a number of big time clients during the day.
My colleague since 1998, Steve Lim, has been a consultant with TeenAIDS since he was a freshman at MIT and set up the earlier version of the website as I began the Global series of Walks in 1999. He is a wizard with MACs (my weakness). He has also dedicated many hours to seeing this site get up and running. Together Kyle and Steve have made a major contribution to our outreach efforts. Kevin Pelletier is a Senior at Fitchburg State College and is our full-time intern working on the website. He has great experience in website design and keeps us on track from the Fitchburg office. He works closely with Kyle and Steve.
In future blogs, I will thank other staff. |
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| Banned in Utah and Communist China! |
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By host on 3/3/2006 |
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I thought this headline would catch your attention. When I first heard about this news it caught my attention too –and made me quite upset. Please read on…
It is sad when HIV/AIDS prevention education like the TeenAIDS model that is based entirely on medical facts, is outlawed in certain regions of the world. For whatever reason that governments or adult institutions make censorship of scientific data official policy, it is innocent young people who pay the price – in this case, by premature death from AIDS. Let me explain what has happened to my Harvard-based program in Utah and China.
In Utah, education is controlled by the State (here in Massachusetts, schools are locally controlled). I was invited to conduct my outreach in Utah by TeenAIDS Board member Doug Soelberg who had four children in the public school system. The Soelbergs are active members of the LDS (Mormon) Church. He and his wife Cher knew from conversations with their children’s friends that there was a lot of... |
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| My thanks to volunteer researchers |
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By host on 3/2/2006 |
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| I would like to tell young people that I always need help doing research on the internet. When I go to speak to young audiences, I ask for assistance. Three young people have recently donated their time and energy to provide this important assistance. Jonathan Woolf, a junior at Dartmouth College (my alma mater) in Hanover, New Hampshire has been... |
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| Emergency Blitz: They'll have blood on their hands |
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By host on 2/12/2006 |
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In the last two hours, I have been personally informed of severe cuts in teen HIV prevention programs in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, all but eliminating their important work. We had a TeenAIDS-PeerCorps program for three years in sponsorship with the Erie County Board of Health. Today it is gone because of major cuts in state funding. Across Wisconsin, government cuts have crippled prevention programs geared to youth. Could this be the beginning of reports from around the country in the wake of new federal and state budget cuts on education? The timing couldn't be more curious following the State of the Union and Congress' recent budget votes. Are they really trying to cut waste and extend tax cuts or are other social considerations at play here? Perhaps some crafty politicians are finally realizing two of their goals for the price of one. It smells like biological censorship hiding in the sheepskin of tax cutting.
We tell the medical truth. Small-minded people who want to... |
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| Major Financial Donors Needed |
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By host on 2/11/2006 |
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We need financial angels who believe in TeenAIDS' common sense and medically accurate approach to curb the rapid rise in youth HIV/AIDS. I am looking for 10 major donors to help me and TeenAIDS counterbalance these major government cuts in youth HIV/AIDS campaigns across the country. Are you the kind of person who can help us help teens and TeenAIDS?
With your help, we can expose this hypocrisy about leaders who say, "yes, we want to help teenagers live healthy lives," but who gleefully support the censorship of biological information in the classroom. TeenAIDS is in the position to help teens in these communities where funding has eliminated critical education through our website and Dr. John's visits to their schools (I don't charge for this outreach so that a school's budget restrictions aren't a problem)... |
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| Google Ads |
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By host on 2/8/2006 |
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An interesting thing has happened to our site with the Google ads that we have been carrying. Let me explain. When it was first proposed to me that we carry these ads it was suggested that we would see two benefits: extra revenue and increased website traffic. Wow! Who wouldn’t go along with that deal?
However, I did insist that the ads be compatible with our message and mission. I didn’t want any ads of a sexual nature (the kind that proliferate on the internet) or ones that were inappropriate for youth. Obviously, I am not opposed to ads that deal with the sexual transmission of HIV as long as they are consistent with the medically accurate facts.
To my chagrin, the ads that they have been posting are for sites that incorrectly, and ignorantly, miss-use the acronym for AIDS. The capitalized letters stand for Acquired Immuno-Deficiency Syndrome. Most of their sites used this term: “Aids.” That is absolutely incorrect and any teenager who takes health studies in school knows this. Why would these advertised sites for Google, that purport to be educational resources, make such a major error? Perhaps the people selecting the sites at Google just aren’t informed because not everyone can be expected to be an expert in this field. So as of today, we are pulling the Google ads. I’m also contacting Google about their mistake because it makes Google look not professional in AIDS researchers’ eyes, confuses teens who know what AIDS stands for, and perpetuates a common error. I am amazed when newspapers and press wire reporters still do this.
By ending the ads we are losing revenue. I don’t like losing revenue because we need to generate all the funds we can to maintain this site and our organizations’ mission. Actually the revenue wasn’t that great. The main reason we carried their ads was because they would generate increased traffic to our site, increasing our position in Google Search. Currently, we are ranked #1 in Google when somebody looks under teens and HIV/AIDS. My decision might jeopardize our standing as I have been forewarned by a top consultant in the Web field who wrote me, “We will see our Google traffic decrease if we remove the adds from the site. By having those ads on our site we link to other sites and that increases our page rank -- increasing our position in the search results.”
I trust you understand my decision. If you agree, please pass our website onto friends, youth, and schools, and if you have you own website, please link to us. Oh, you can also donate to us. |
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| Dr. John's ABC's of AIDS prevention |
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By host on 2/6/2006 |
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Dr. John's ABC's of AIDS prevention
Briefly put, I use the ABCs of AIDS to help introduce the basics of HIV prevention to youth.
A = Abstinence
No sex = no AIDS. It's a medical fact that not having sex will protect you from STDs and HIV. Postponing sex until older is better than starting too early.
B = Be Faithful
Monogamy, having sex with only one partner is safer than being promiscuous with different partners.
C = Condoms
While condoms are not 100% perfect, using condoms protects sexually active young people from HIV and most STDs. Unprotected sexual intercourse is always 100% unsafe.
To this message, I make these points:
Sharing needles is never safe and in parts of Eastern Europe, it's the leading transmission route for HIV.
You don't know who your sexual partner has slept with before you.
Boys and girls lie to each other to get what they want. For many boys, sex is a game and they want to score. For many girls, giving up sex is a way to get a boyfriend.
Note: For many young people, abstinence-only-until-marriage is not a viable choice. They'll say, "Do adults really think I'm waiting until I'm 25 to have my first sex?" Most parents with whom I speak make concessions for their older unmarried children (but not under their roof although this standard is also going by the wayside). Many parents will condone sex before marriage but they put a higher age on consenting sex for youth than do sexually mature teens. When you talk to young people, they laugh and say they know their parents' generation had sex before marriage too but just don't want to admit it. Universally, youth say that what they do with their bodies is their business. I can accept that with older youth but with this caveat, postpone sex as long as possible and follow the ABCs. They need to hear that HIV is out there and if they follow the ABCs, they can probably avoid AIDS. Because they live in a democratic world, they must carefully decide what their level of risk is going to be based on medically accurate facts. |
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| We Need Financial Angels |
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By host on 2/2/2006 |
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We need financial angels
I won't make any bones about it. For the impressive educational work we do in the U.S. and around the world, TeenAIDS is run on a shoe string. It's almost unbelievable. Since 1997 when we were incorporated as a non-profit charity, I have put all of my life's savings into TeenAIDS. I volunteer; you heard correctly. I have never taken the annual salary voted to me by the Board so that our money would go to our educational programs. In the past eight years, I have been able to raise $450,000 from friends and people who believe strongly in my direct approach to get teens the medical facts to protect their lives. We've had additional tens of thousands donated to us in-kind (see my note of thanks to in-kind donors under the Help Us section above). Over 200,000 youth have been directly contacted by me in 22 U.S. states and 73 countries in the first-ever, global AIDS prevention walk. Today, thousands of PeerCorps volunteers reach out to their friends and peers. We are grateful to everyone who shares the vision of TeenAIDS.
Now we are moving to the next level of interaction. Our goal is to reach 1,000,000 youth in the next three years using the best tools modern technology has to offer. Supplementing my personal street outreach, will be the power of the internet through cyberspace. The goal of our revamped website is to start meaningful conversations about HIV/AIDS and the role this danger plays in young, unsuspecting lives in every corner of the world. Yet, this grand plan takes money.
I am looking for ten Angels who will "give or get" $15,000 this year to TeenAIDS. Already, one has come forward. Next week, you can read about him in a new feature, "Donor of the Year - 2005" (he has donated before and generously).
What about me?
Well, I have come to this humanitarian mission from a number of different paths. So I'll start by telling you that I like to draw. You can check out my drawings at: www.chittickdrawings.com . It's still under construction but you might enjoy my eye.
"I've got an AIDS needle!"
In my hometown in north central Massachusetts, a man wielding what he said was a needle contaminated with the "AIDS virus," held up a local CVS store. He got the money from a very frightened young clerk. Then a few stores in other locales reported the same threat and personnel quickly turned over the money. Can you imagine? Guns and knives are being exchanged for syringes half-filled with human blood! Obviously, young people are afraid of HIV/AIDS via needles so prevention education has succeeded on that one level. The same week, TV news showed the tape of a surveillance camera in a 24 hour store as an angry shop-owner beat up a gun-toting robber. Go figure! |
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| Kissing on the first date - a No-No but... |
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By host on 1/31/2006 |
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At first, I thought what I was hearing was a trend to a more Victorian time. More young females in both high school and college have been telling me they don't kiss on the first date - but will do fellatio on the second date (if they want or not). To many youth, oral sex is not really considered "sex" like vaginal or anal intercourse. That's the dichotomy.
Deep kissing, we called it French kissing in the '60s, is safe sex, in most cases. For teens in love or lust, tongue swapping is as natural as Mom's apple pie. It always has been. Today, however, oral sex makes it pie a al mode. Perhaps because of the media's explicit portrayal of sex (or Monica Lewinsky), oral sex is out of the closet. Young people the world over find it less troublesome than what they call "real sex." Most adults are shocked by the nonchalant attitudes of the younger generation towards oral sex. On three visits to American schools last year, I was taken aside by the administrator or teacher who confided in hushed tones that their schools had organized BJ clubs, younger girls doing older boys. No exaggeration, that is what they said. I am no longer shocked by what teens say but am baffled by some adults' shock at teens' attitudes. Don't they read newspapers or watch Oprah or the news?
It is up to parents to teach morality in the home and spiritual advisors to preach it in houses of worship. Yet many won't touch the subject of oral sex. Once outside the family environs, youth come in contact with many other influences. Watching TV, listening to rock and rap, going to the movies, surfing the net and talking to friends -- these all turn adolescents on to new and exciting avenues of pleasure that they don't hear about from parents or religious leaders.
As a result, many youth report that they consider oral sex to be casual sex because it's quick, easy and uncomplicated -- and you can't get a girl pregnant. They're correct about pregnancy of course, but I remind them that STDs (like herpes, genital warts, gonorrhea, etc.) can be transmitted by oral sex. Yet they think there are medicines at the pharmacy for anything although I point out that not everything can be cured with a drug. I am very clear that there is no medical cure for AIDS and no vaccine to stop HIV although some drug therapies exist to prolong the onslaught of AIDS diseases.
(One note: oral sex is not a good transmitter of HIV because of saliva.) |
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| Curing AIDS? |
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By host on 1/16/2006 |
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A lot of folks confuse the myriad of drug therapies currently available for people living with AIDS (PLWHAs) with there being a cure. No cure exists after 25 years of research. I am amazed at the number of people who tell me they thought a cure was available - it just wasn't in poor countries like in Africa.
There also is no vaccine to stop HIV. If there was, my work wouldn't be needed. Our only tool to stop HIV among teens is honest prevention education and peer counseling.
An AP story on Christmas Sunday carried a story that reported:
"In an unusually candid admission, the federal chief of AIDS research says he believes drug companies don't have an incentive to create a vaccine for the HIV and are likely to wait to profit from it after the government develops one."
Dr. Edmund Tramont, head of the AIDS research division of the National Institutes of Health was quoted as saying, 'It's not going to be made by a company. They're dropping out like flies because there's no real incentive for them to do it. We have to do it.' " The wire story added, "Of course, the pharmaceutical researchers deny that they're dragging their feet." I wonder what are their priorities?
The AP story finished with, 'The International AIDS Vaccines Initiative estimates that the annual spent on AIDS vaccine development is $682 million per year, or about half-again as much as was spent to promote Viagra, Levitra, and Cialis in 2004. ' "
HmmmŠ in what age population can be found some of the fastest growing incidences of HIV transmission? Besides teens and young adults, it's sexually active seniors who are being greatly affected and infected by these erection enhancers. But if you ask a senior if their peers were at risk for AIDS, they would laugh it off.
Okay. They're old enough to know better. Yet teens are innocent and often unsuspecting of this danger around them. I am disturbed when I find a teen who laughs off the threat. That's why I believe so passionately in the TeenAIDS-PeerCorps mission. |
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