Teen HIV highest in L.B.
By Johnna Walker
Daily Forty-Niner
Adolescents in Long Beach between ages
15 and 19 have the highest rate of infection in the nation, a city health
representative announced Wednesday during a sexually transmitted disease
awareness conference on campus.
The conference in Student Health Services
aimed to bring awareness of World AIDS Day.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
conducted the survey, which sampled many U.S. cities.
"I was really surprised to hear that Long
Beach was so high in the stats, especially about HIV," said a Cal State
Long Beach student who attended the conference and asked to remain anonymous.
Astonished looks appeared on the faces
of audience members as Philip Phan, representative from the Los Angeles
Department of Health Services, showed slides of some of the effects STDs
have on the male and female bodies.
Phan also informed the audience of locations
throughout Los Angeles County where it is possible to receive confidential
HIV testing.
He suggested people use condoms lubricated
with Nonoxinal 9, a spermicide that also helps prevent the transmission
of STDs, he said.
During the conference, the Long Beach City
Health Department's "Beach Mobile" was parked outside of the health center,
where some students lined up for free and confidential chlamydia, gonorrhea
and HIV testing.
"The reason we focused on STDs in this
conference is because HIV has been focused on, and STDs are portal entries
to HIV," said Martha Perez, a CSULB graduate student in social work and
an organizer of the event.
"That is why we want people to become aware
today."
This is the first year CSULB has worked
with the city for this kind of event on World AIDS Day.
Three graduate students helped to organize
the conference, which provided the graduate students with credit for a
community project class they are enrolled in.
The weekly sexual health awareness workshop
in the health center was incorporated into the conference as well, giving
people the chance to ask questions about birth control methods, breast
and testicular examination and STD information.
"STDs thrive on college students," Rocha
said.
CSULB's high enrollment, about 30,000,
and general trends putting college students at high risk of obtaining STDs
prompted the city health department to visit CSULB, she said. |
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