AIDS and adolescents

WHILE we did not agree with the distribution of condoms to students outside a secondary school recently, the statistics being revealed about adolescent sexual activity in TT are so disturbing that the problem seems to demand some kind of extraordinary action. For example, we are now told that 50 percent of HIV infections occur in the 15 to 24 age group. The information came from Hetty Serjeant, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) TT representative, when she spoke at a World Population Day seminar at the Hilton on Monday.

Serjeant, citing the study on The Sexual Health Needs of Youth in Tobago, said the higher rate of HIV infection in teen girls was because their sex partners were older and had more sexual experience. She pointed out that one in every eight male respondents in a survey thought the best way to cure a sexually transmitted infection was to have sex with a virgin. It is amazing that in an allegedly civilised and intelligent society such as ours, this kind of benighted stupidity still exists.

Speaking at the same seminar, Planning and Development Minister Dr Keith Rowley disclosed that the current adolescent birth rate is 14.1 percent which, he said, was "unsatisfactory and unacceptable." Dr Rowley pointed out that adolescent sexual activity, pregnancy and early motherhood were priority areas for TT as these factors had the potential to disrupt the economic, health and social development of the country's youths. Supporting Serjeant's figures, the Minister revealed that the period 1999 to 2000 registered a 45 percent increase in the number of AIDS cases in the 15 to 19 age group. He added: "The number of women infected by HIV in the same age group is five times higher than among adolescent males. Adolescent females are the fastest growing group of new HIV infections in Trinidad and Tobago. A loss of five percent in GDP by the year 2005 has been projected for Trinidad and Tobago as a result of AIDS."

We would urge every principal of every secondary school in the country to clip out this editorial and pin it on their most prominent bulletin board so that students could digest these troubling statistics and appreciate the implications for each and every one of them and for our country. The fact is that AIDS infection is now spreading most rapidly among the country's adolescent female population and that can only be the result of an increase in illicit sexual activity among the members of this group. There is a critical need then to alert TT's teenage population to this alarming situation and to warn them about the dangers of indulging in casual or promiscuous sexual activity. Apart from the stigma and lack of respect they would incur for themselves and the likelihood of being burdened by an unwanted pregnancy, they may also be playing Russian roulette with their lives.

Although medication has been developed to retard the onset of AIDS, we need hardly emphasise that there is no guarantee that, once infected with the virus, the incurable disease will not arise. In fact, the possibility of developing AIDS will remain a lifelong threat. The problem of adolescent sexuality, then, is a critical one requiring a special effort from every concerned quarter. Dr Rowley's prescription: "I urge all policymakers, parents, health system managers and educators to work in tandem to help adolescents develop into healthy, productive adults by providing them with a safe and supportive environment, accurate information and counselling, education and training to build life skills and accessible, good quality health services. They are the adults of tomorrow, the productive workers and parents of the future." Adolescents must realise that sexual activity could never be worth the possible destruction of their own lives.