October 8, 2007

Time for HIV 101 on College Campuses

This year’s crop of incoming college students may have heard plenty about HIV throughout their lives—but they still might not make prevention a personal priority, NPR reports.

At a recent meeting at Howard University in Washington, DC, UNAIDS director Dr. Peter Piot urged students to become informed about the virus—and to realize that the global AIDS epidemic is far from over. He also addressed DC’s high HIV-infection rate: One in 20 people there is HIV positive.

According to an American College Health Association study, HIV prevalence among college students last year was nearly equal to HIV prevalence in the general population.