High School students, Let’s Talk About Sex

New London High School students have an alarmingly high rate of teen pregnancies and STDs so the school took a controversial step to deal with it.

I was watching the news the other night when a story caught my interest. New London High School runs a health clinic and on March 1, they will be able to offer condoms and prescription birth control to students. The story was accompanied by interviews with parents of students and the majority was in favor of the new service.

I am the mother of two teenage girls and over the years the Birds and Bees talk has evolved into the necessity to use birth control and safe sex. I believe preaching abstinence is unrealistic, I have taught them that sex is part of a loving relationship and not something you should ever be coerced into. While I do not expect them to wait until marriage, I do expect them to wait until they are mature and in love. We have raised them to respect their body and expect others to do the same.

So how would I feel if they offered a similar service at North Branford High School? I actually think all high schools should do it. Yes you can go to the grocery store or pharmacy and buy condoms, but how many teens have access to a car to do so?

They can go to Planned Parenthood to get free condoms and counseling, but have you ever passed a Planned Parenthood clinic? Most of the time they have pro-life protesters outside, I think this would scare off many teens from trying to enter.

School-based clinics have been offering birth control services in Windham and Hartford schools for eight years. Nurses in these clinics can educate students on safe sex and discuss whether the student is ready for that kind of relationship. As with the New London clinic, parents are given the opportunity to refuse their child services at the clinic.

According to the Center for Disease Control, teen pregnancy rates have been declining for the last few years, however, they are still up to nine times higher than in other developed nations. They also show that 46 percent of high school students have had sex; only 38 percent of them used a condom. Of the 19 million new STD infections last year, almost half of the diagnoses were in people aged 15 to 24 years old.

I find those statistics shocking. Have people forgotten to warn their kids about HIV and other STDs? They are treatable, but some are not curable so why not make sure our children are educated and protected?
About this column: Patch invites you and your circle of friends to help build a community of support for mothers and their families right here in town. Each week in Family Talk, our Moms Council of experts and smart moms take your questions, give advice and share solutions. (By Doreen Currie)

Study: 1 In 900 Sex Acts Spreads HIV Virus

A heterosexual person infected with HIV will transmit the virus to their partner once in every 900 times the couple has unprotected sex, according to a new study conducted in Africa.

However, the exact number of sexual acts that are needed to transmit the virus can vary tremendously depending on the amount of the virus in the infected person’s blood, said study researcher James Hughes, of the University of Washington in Seattle.

In fact, the amount of virus in the blood is the single most important factor in determining whether HIV is passed between sexual partners, the study found. For every tenfold increase in the concentration, there is about a threefold increase in the risk of transmission during a single sexual act.

People with very high blood concentrations of the virus (such as those who very recently acquired the infection) may need to have sex only 10 times to transmit the virus, Hughes said. “The average can be a little deceptive,” Hughes said.

The new findings reinforce the idea that the best methods for reducing HIV transmission are those that decrease the concentration of the virus in the blood, as can be done with antiretroviral drugs, Hughes said. A study published last year found the drugs could reduce the transmission of HIV between partners by 96 percent.

The new study also confirmed condoms are highly effective in preventing HIV infection, reducing the risk of transmission by 78 percent. Male circumcision reduced the risk of HIV transmission by 47 percent.

HIV transmission

Earlier studies attempted to estimate the rate of HIV transmission, but were typically quite small, and did not measure the concentration of the virus in the blood throughout the entire study period.

The new study included 3,297 couples from sub-Saharan Africa that were “HIV-discordant,” meaning one partner had HIV while the other did not. The HIV-infected partners in the study were tested periodically over the two-year study for the amount of HIV in their blood. Infected partners were also interviewed every month and asked how many times they had sex, and whether they used protection.

The uninfected partners were tested periodically to see whether they had acquired HIV. The researchers used genetic testing of the virus to confirm that any new HIV infections had been acquired from the study partner designated at the study’s start.

Eighty-six HIV transmissions occurred during the study period.

Men were about twice as likely to transmit HIV to women as women were to men. This increased risk of transmission could be attributed to higher virus concentrations in the blood of men compared with women, according to the study. In addition, women were more likely to have genital herpes, which increases susceptibility to HIV.

Condoms were reported to be used in 93 percent of sexual acts, but the researchers suspect their  use was over reported. Therefore, condoms actually may be even more effective at preventing HIV transmission than the 78 percent reduction that the researchers estimated, Hughes said.

The AIDS epidemic

The study relied on self-reports, which might be wrong. However, errors in reports of the number of sexual acts would be unlikely to affect most of the study results, Hughes said.

The average risk of HIV infection per sexual act estimated in the study is consistent with what has been found by previous research, but there are many situations in which that number may not apply,” said Dr. Myron Cohen, a professor of medicine, microbiology, immunology and public health at the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who was not involved in the work.

That’s because the participants included in the study are couples that have remained together and discordant over a long period of time. This indicates the couples might have some biological protection against transmission, Cohen said.

“The true estimation might be higher if you were studying different kinds of people,” Cohen said.

While most of the findings are likely generalizable to other countries, the number of sexual acts needed to transmit the virus is likely specific to the African population studied, Hughes said. Previous studies in the United States have found a lower transmission rate.

In addition, the findings only apply to heterosexual couples, and not men who have sex with men, a group that is likely to have a much higher transmission rate, Hughes said.

Pass it on: The best way to reduce the risk of HIV transmission is to lower the amount of the virus in the blood. (khq)

Penis Calendar launched

FLORENCE, Italy – Italian shock photographer Oliviero Toscani has done it again — this time with a calendar featuring 12 penis close-ups in an ad for a group of companies that make naturally-tanned leather.

The flamboyant photographer launched the calendar at an event in Florence also attended by famously well-endowed Italian porn star Rocco Siffredi, who said that people should “de-dramatise” sex and put an end to “bigotry”.

Toscani last year focused on women’s genitalia for a calendar for the same Vera Pelle consortium, which brought censure from Italy’s advertising watchdog.

Feminists argued that the graphic images offended female dignity.

One woman at Thursday’s launch said: “I think there’s some kind of justice and equality here! Last year it was women, this year it’s men.”

Philippe Daverio, an art critic, said: “Naked women are tolerated in calendars but unfortunately men aren’t. We are here to defend men’s rights.”

Toscani is best known for his controversial ad campaigns for the Italian clothes maker Benetton, which itself courted controversy last year with a series of photo montages of rival world leaders kissing each other.

His photographs of a man dying of AIDS in 1992 sparked controversy, as did a campaign based on photos of death row inmates in the United States in 2000.

Several publicity schemes using his photographs have been banned in Italy, including an ad for a clothing brand in 2005 featuring two men groping on a sofa which caused outraged in the largely Catholic country.

In 2007, Toscani photographed the emaciated French model Isabelle Caro in the nude for a campaign against anorexia which at the time he said was intended to raise questions about fashion world stereotypes. (Agence France-Presse)

Health Department says new HIV cases up 89% in November 2011

MANILA, Philippines – A total of 212 Filipinos were diagnosed with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in November, a Department of Health (DOH) report said.

The figure is 89% higher compared to the 112 cases reported in the same month in 2010. This brought the cumulative number of HIV cases discovered in the first 11 months of 2011 to 2,081.

Of the 212 new cases, 199 were males while 13 were females. Their median age was 28 years.

The figure also included 25 overseas Filipino workers.

Fifty-eight percent of the new cases, or 124, were from Metro Manila.

“Reported mode of transmission was all sexual contact. Males having sex with other males (85%) were the predominant type of sexual transmission. Most (99%) of the cases were still asymptomatic at the time of reporting,” the report said.

“Of the 212 HIV positive cases, three were reported as AIDS cases, one was female and two were males. Their median age is 27 years… Of the AIDS cases, there was one reported death for this month — a 26-year-old female,” it added.

AIDS, or acquired immune deficiency syndrome, is the disease caused by HIV.

LPG Marketers Association Rep. Arnel Ty hopes that Congress can revisit the country’s AIDS law amid the rising number of HIV cases these past few years.

“I don’t see na nabibigyan [ang tao] ng tamang information, di kamukha noong panahon ni (Health) Secretary Juan Flavier, active ang DOH na sabihan at takutin ang mamamayan,” he said.

Ty and four of his colleagues in Congress are pushing for a budget of P400 million to jumpstart a national action plan aimed at suppressing HIV/AIDS. (ABS-CBN)