teens with hiv taking more risks :: essays research papers

Teenagers infected with HIV are more(prenominal) likely to immerse in risky sex and drug use since the introduction of effective medicines that effectively keep AIDS at bay, a new matter finds.The trend, which began surfacing after highly active antiretroviral therapies (HAART) were introduced in 1996, points to the need for targeted interventions to put down risky behavior and improve quality of life for those in this group, the researchers noted. slightly a quarter of the 40,000 new HIV infections in the United States severally year occur in throng under the age of 21, gibe to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."Young people, post-HAART, are engaging in more unprotected sex and engaging in more inwardness abuse, and are more emotionally distressed and have a spurn quality of life," utter lead researcher Marguerita Lightfoot, an assistant research psychologist at the University of California, Los Angeles Center for Community Health.This findi ng was surprising, Lightfoot added. "I had a hypothesis that the unexampled people who are taking HAART would be healthier, because they had more hope, they were upkeep longer. And I was surprised that that wasnt the case."In the study, Lightfoot and her colleagues compared behaviors among 349 teens with HIV from Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York City and Miami from 1994 to 1996, with one hundred seventy-five teens with HIV in the equivalent cities from 1999 to 2000.The deuce groups did not include the same people, but they were a similar mix of sex, age, race and ethnicity, as thoroughly as socioeconomic factors, according to the report in the March come forward of the American Journal of Health Behavior.The researchers found the post-HAART group was almost two times more likely to have had unprotected sex. The post-HAART teens had almost doubly the number of sex partners, compared with pre-HAART teens. And post-HAART teens were more likely to have a intimate part ner who used injected drugs.In addition, the post-HAART group was diagnosed with HIV at a younger age and was in worse health than the pre-HAART group, Lightfoots team found.Lightfoot said there are a number of reasons for these findings. She noted the powerful drug regimen isnt perfect. "There are increased expectations for HAART," Lightfoot said. "But not everyone is booming on HAART."Lightfoot also noted that teens infected with HIV are more apt to be involved with the juvenile justice system and snuff it time in jail. "Maybe it says something about the kind of young people who are more likely to be infected with HIV.