AIDS is virtually unknown among straight, white, non-drug using teens. Per the article, 6,000 of the 12,000 infected are African-Americans, gays are "hit particularly hard," and my guess is that most of the rest are druggies.

So of course the answer is to test those at very little risk of infection.

Once infected, one is HIV-positive for life whether they are tested or not. If caught early, it can be treated and the complications known as AIDS can be prevented.

Although we may think smugly that it can´t happen to a straight, white, non-drug-user, we cannot be absolutely sure that that child has not had sexual contact with an infected person.

Testing can be done by one´s family doctor. That seems to be the prudent way to go. If a person ever needs a blood tranfusion, or has to have their blood tested for any reason, HIV will out. Better sooner than later.

More than 50% of teenaged black girls in D.C. have at least one STD.
There´s a whole lot of lovin´ goin´ on.
(Watch an episode of Maury Povich, with the dna testing ´who´s the daddy´ and you will see some teenaged girls, mostly blacks, who become pregnant at age 14, 15, or 16, and have several boys tested without ever finding the father.
And too often, when the dna does id the father, the girl will dance around in a most vulgar fashion, sometimes sticking her butt into the face of the boy, then doing a bump and grind routine.
We are a part of an ever increasing vulgarity culture, and the black subculture contaminates the rest...

They´ve all been told that condoms prevent disease...but in reality they are not always effective...AND...as long as you (attempt to)prevent the unwanted pregnancy through "free" contraception...Anything goes.

Forget about teaching them self respect. Forget about teaching them that using others or allowing yourself to be used damages most human beings-self worth.

Most of all forget about teaching them that abstaining until they are responsible people with a reasonable chance of success and a committed partner can lead to a happy life and the freedom of not wondering who the father of your child may be, (sorry Maury) or wondering if you have contracted a debilitating or fatal disease.

Waaay back in the day, I remember the Nun´s teaching us that God tells us to "wait" in order to preserve our dignity and guarantee that we would have "peace of mind." I didn´t really know what that meant at the time but I followed the rules and when my children were born in the early 80´s, right about the time we were becoming aware of AIDS, I did have peace of mind knowing that by denying those urges...I had not unknowingly passed a fatal disease to my children

Unintended consequences; go for them, die with them.

Studies like this do not support the conclusion they advertise, that HIV infected people do not know they are infected. Some of them certainly do and are denying it to researchers just as they do to potential sex partners. There is no simple scientific method to determine whether someone knows they are HIV positive or not. Just asking them and writing down the answer as though it were valid scientific data is ludicrous.

Everyone knows by know what causes AIDS, how to avoid it, and how to get tested for it. Those who are HIV positive and are lying to researchers about not knowing it constitute one subgroup; the remainder consists of those who do not want to know whether they are HIV positive.

It is ironic that politically correct epidemiology has swung 180 degrees. In the beginning of the AIDS epidemic standard STD testing and reporting protocols were outlawed lest homosexuals feel discriminated against. Countless people died needlessly because AIDS was not handled the way other infectious STDs have been handled, i.e. by routine testing, reporting and case tracking. People could not even be tested for HIV without a signed consent form. Case tracking and finding were, and may still be, non-existent. Now we are being told that EVERYBODY gotta get tested for HIV, which is yet more unscientific politically correct nonsense.

"Harm reduction" assumes there is no use telling people not to engage in high risk behaviors at the same time it proposes to educate them about how to avoid the consequences of such behaviors.

Sixty million morons voted to re-elect Bath House Barry to the highest office in the land. The young, black, homosexual, promiscuous AIDS-infected crowd are just following in the footsteps of their Fearless Leader.

Stupid is as stupid does. Rings true.

Gays and bisexuals are hit particularly hard? Wow, what a surprise.

Have to interject some truth here.
Someone close to me used to work for the local chain of HIV/AIDS clinics. Her home town, Montgomery, Alabama, has the highest rate per thousand of KNOWN cases in the USA. A source of civic pride?
And some, many in fact, persons do NOT know, and were NOT slutting around. When hubby is trolling the hookers on Mobile Highway truck stops, picks up a "gift that keeps on giving", and brings it home to pass on to her, how is she at fault? And it happens, it really does. And sometime the vector is the other way, but in either case, there can occasionally be a truly innocent party. Again, it does happen, and we know some specific examples.
Yes, it would be good if people would find other forms of entertainment than the horizontal bop with strangers.
But judging from recent comments in this gracious salon, such behavior is not restricted to the teen set.

Think how much good the first black president´s wife could have done in the black community promoting safe sex or even marriage instead of taking her food issues out on all of us.

The HIV virus creates no symptoms. The first sign of this disease was when a doctor in San Francisco noticed a cluster of gay men who had the same unusual pneumonia. The discovery of the HIV virus itself came later. The pneumonis was one of the "opportunistic diseases" that those with immune systems weakened by the HIV virus contracted.

Many have not found out they had the virus until they contracted an opportunistic disease or gave blood for a test or for donation. HIV itself is asymptomatic. Without symptoms.

Re #12, should have said that the virus creates no symptoms for at least the first month or two. At that point there can be flu-like symptoms, but they may be so mild that they go virtually unnoticed or are passed off as the flu.

During this time the infected person can be passing the virus on to others.

World AIDS day must be coming up. Be prepared for a slew of victimhood-geared press releases from the AIDS industry. It happens every year. Fundraising and victimhood notions go hand-in-hand in that industry.