The Illinois Department of Public Health ( IDPH ) released staggering statistics about the escalating numbers of HIV-infected youth in the state. The Children's Place Association, a Chicago-based provider of care to Illinois HIV/AIDS-infected children and families, held a forum to address the IDPH data.
Medical experts, policy makers and leading Illinois HIV/AIDS youth specialists convened on Nov. 9 at the Chicago InterContinental Hotel, 505 N. Michigan, to discuss solutions.
The data shows a 60 percent increase in Illinois HIV infections among youths under the age of 24—with a 100 percent increase among males alone—since 2000.
'HIV/AIDS-infected youth are a severely overlooked group from a service and public policy perspective,' said Cathy Krieger, president and CEO of The Children's Place Association. 'The surging infections among [ youth ] is proof positive prevention efforts are failing.'
During a panel at the forum, statistics showed that adolescents today are becoming more and more sexually active while being unaware of the risks of HIV infection. According to the Youth Risk Behavior Survey of Illinois ( 2007 ) , nearly half of youth grades 9-12 reported having sexual intercourse.
'The solution is education and prevention,' said Pam Briggs, director of the Heart of Illinois HIV/AIDS Center at the University of Illinois. Several experts at the forum expressed concerns that Illinois schools—most of which have abstinence-only health education programs—were not emphasizing HIV prevention and that this has added to the inflation of HIV among youth.
Dr. Marguerita Lightfoot of the Neuropsychiatric Institute and the Center for HIV Identification, Prevention and Treatment Services at UCLA, who delivered a keynote address via videoconference, said that more youth today look for information about safe sex online and that taking advantage of technology may be an opportunity to educate youth about safe sex.
However, lack of education about safe sex and HIV prevention only addresses part of the problem. Illinois is one of the few states with strict policies regarding HIV infection among youth today. Section 2a of the Communicable Disease Prevention Act requires school principals to be notified if a student tests positive for HIV.
'State law trumps HIPAA [ The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act ] preventions, which is why this law still presents a problem,' David Ormsby, a spokesman for the Children's Place Association, told Windy City Times.
The law—passed in 1987 and revised in 1988—presents a major fear factor for HIV testing among youth.
'The principal notification law is a barrier to testing and a legislative relic from an era when governments passed HIV/AIDS-related laws grounded in ignorance and fear versus fact,' said State Rep. Sara Feigenholtz, D-Chicago, who attended the forum. 'I will sponsor legislation to repeal this law.'
