- Forty per cent of British 11-year olds have never heard
of Aids, according to a study which shows young people are becoming worryingly
more ignorant about the dangers of the disease.
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- A decade after Aids information was placed on the school
curriculum, large numbers of adolescents just below the age of consent
have little knowledge of how to avoid contracting HIV.
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- One in five 15-year-olds are unaware that having sex
without a condom is 'high risk'.
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- 'It's clear that young people's knowledge and motivation
to do something about Aids is declining,' said Dr David Regis of the Schools
Health Education Unit, which carried out the survey in 3,600 schools. 'You
don't want them to be anxious, you want them to be safe, but they have
to have adequate knowledge to do this.'
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- 'I never knew anyone with HIV,' said Clint Walters, who
contracted the virus at 17. 'At school all they told us was the biological
aspects of sex and pregnancy. I was told to wear a condom or you might
get a woman pregnant. I'm sure I got HIV from a guy in London but he didn't
look sick.'
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- Walters, now 21, returned to school after his diagnosis
and sat his A-levels a year later with a catheter under his jeans because
of bladder problems caused by HIV-related illness. 'You can't describe
the pain of the diagnosis. My mum didn't even know I was gay.'
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- Tim Smith, 22, from Brighton, contracted HIV when he
will still a attending Roman Catholic school at 18. 'There isn't a day
when I don't regret not being taught about Aids. It was just never discussed
at school. The entire focus of our sex education was about getting girls
pregnant. They mentioned sexually transmitted diseases but we never got
any detail.
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- 'I meet people now who have HIV and at least they're
30 or 40. They had some sort of a life before they were diagnosed. My entire
adult life has been about dealing with HIV. I'm healthy and happy but I
live with a shadow over me, worrying when the drugs will stop working.'
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- Terry Joe, who promotes sexual health in Oxfordshire
for the Terrence Higgins Trust, said: 'It's terrible that so many young
people still don't have an adequate grasp of these issues. It's too easy
for sexual health to fall off teachers' agendas because they don't know
enough or they lack the confidence to discuss it.
-
- 'The lack of knowledge is even worse in poorer groups.
We still find young people who think you can't get pregnant if it's the
first time. That's the level of knowledge that we're dealing with. There
is a huge challenge to normalise contraception and sex, so they can be
discussed by parents and teachers without it being a big deal.'
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- A spokeswoman for the National Union of Teachers said:
'One of the worst things that has happened was allowing parents to withdraw
their children from sex education.'
-
- Other experts complain that Section 28, the controversial
law forbidding the so called 'promotion' of homosexuality, constrains teachers
from discussing HIV.
-
- Latest figures from the Department of Health show that
47,000 people in Britain have been diagnosed HIV-positive. More than 14,000
have died although the death rate has slowed with the introduction of 'combination
therapy', which mixes treatment drugs. Those who have contracted HIV through
heterosexual intercourse are one of the fastest growing groups.
-
- More than 40,000 children were questioned for the survey
last year. Sixteen per cent of 15-year-old boys still believed that HIV
can be contracted from a lavatory seat. A similar number identified kissing
as a risk activity. The number of 11-year-olds who had never heard of Aids
was 6 per cent up on 1999.
-
- Experts believe that deaths from Aids of celebrities
such as the actor Rock Hudson or the singer Freddie Mercury in the 1980s
and early 1990s may have led to greater awareness of the illness. 'Without
those celebrity deaths,' said Regis, 'the subject has dropped off young
people's radar.'
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- Clint Walters has set up Health Initiatives for Youth,
an information service. Its youngest contact with HIV is just 15.
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- 'It's only when you meet other young people with HIV
that for the first time in your life you feel like a normal human being,
not a freak,' said Walters. 'It's vital that young people don't find themselves
in the same position as me and say they never knew about HIV.'
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2001
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- http://www.observer.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,596752,00.html
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