It is estimated that young Americans between the ages of 13 and 25 are contracting the HIV virus at the rate of two per hour.
And recent figures indicating a decrease in the number of Americans infected with the disease are misleading, according to UW-Madison sociology Professor John DeLamater, who teaches Sociology 151, \Human Sexuality.""
To raise awareness about the AIDS epidemic, UW-Madison groups and community organizations will observe the 14th Annual World AIDS Day this Saturday, with events continuing through the following week, ending with a fund-raising Dance Marathon Dec. 7 and 8 hosted by former MTV star Eric Nies.
According to a survey conducted last summer, Dane County ranks second highest behind Milwaukee County in number of HIV infections in Wisconsin.
JoAnn Smith, public relations coordinator for Madison's chapter of the AIDS Network, said due to the high rate of sexually transmitted diseases on college campuses, students have a much greater risk factor for contracting the HIV virus.
DeLamater said he thought college students often misunderstand the disease.
""I think that it's been a common misconception on college campuses since day one,"" he said. ""A lot of people believe that AIDS is a gay man's disease or they believe that it's a black IV drug user's disease. Since they don't see a lot of gay men and black IV drug users in Madison, they think it's not a problem here.""
Recent statistics showing decreased numbers of HIV contractions and deaths from AIDS, according to DeLamater, are partly due to the development of medications that prolong the onset of the actual disease.
""[The decreased numbers] are just kind of a fluke,"" he said. ""There's very good evidence that the number of people engaging in unsafe sexual practices is actually up.""
The statistics for AIDS infections on college campuses is also misleading, Smith said. When surveys are taken to determine the geographic distribution of the disease, students who are infected are often accounted for as a case in their hometown rather than as a case in the town in which they attend college.
""It makes the college campuses look translucent to what's going on,"" she said.
In his sociology course, DeLamater gives students an update of the status of the AIDS epidemic each year.
""I try to get the word out to them that they shouldn't be lulled into thinking that we've conquered the problem,"" he said.
He said he hoped students gain a greater knowledge of such issues after taking his class.
Students will come to his office and tell him how, because of his lectures, they started to use condoms or they started to look into their partners' sexual history, he said.
UW-Madison junior Holly Malinowski, a member of UW-Madison's chapter of the Student Global AIDS Campaign, said events such as the World AIDS Day were important to dispel myths on campus surrounding the disease.
""Education is the only way we can fight the disease,"" she said.
