NCJ Number
117635
Date Published
1988
Length
7 pages
Annotation
Providing sensitive, informative AIDS education to hemophilic youth presents a unique challenge for teachers, administrators, community groups, and parents, because no other group of young people has experienced the impact of HIV infection and the AIDS threat as personally as adolescents with hemophilia.
Abstract
The incidence of AIDS among the hemophilic population is higher than for any other group, with seroprevalence rates for antibody to HIV an estimated 70 percent. Transmission to the sex partners and babies of the hemophilic population is also occurring. AIDS education thus must provide accurate information and must dispel myths about AIDS, HIV infection, homosexuality, and hemophilia. It should recognize the enormous psychological impacts and potential social isolation that hemophiliacs may experience as a result of being identified as members of a high-risk group. Focusing on high-risk behaviors and on the need for all adolescents to be well-informed and to incorporate safer sex practices into their lives will help prevent hemophilic youth from feeling identified as being different from their peers. Education must also be sensitive to fears and concerns relating to being seropositive, including concerns about stigmatization, discrimination, illness, loss of body image, and death and dying. 9 references.