Friday, October 24, 2008

HIV/AIDS: Exposure at a St.Louis High School?

Should be categorized under "Most Bizarre Stories Ever Posted on CNN's Front Page..."
Students at a suburban St. Louis high school headed to the gymnasium for HIV testing this week after an infected person told health officials as many as 50 teenagers might have been exposed to the virus that causes AIDS.

Officials refused to give details on who the person was or how the students at Normandy High School might have been exposed, but the district is consulting with national AIDS organizations as it tries to minimize the fallout and prevent the infection -- and misinformation -- from spreading...

The St. Louis County Health Department said last week that a positive HIV test raised concern that students at Normandy might have been exposed. The department is not saying whether the infected person was a student or connected with the school, only that the person indicated as many as 50 students may have been exposed.

The Health Department also will not say how any exposure might have occurred. Health Department spokesman Craig LeFebvre has said the possibilities include sexual activity, intravenous drug use, piercings and tattoos.

I mean, first of all, whoa. No matter the route of infection, that's a lot of possible exposures. 50 sexual exposures? 50 IV exposures? I think we can probably rule out piercings and tattoos... after all, there have been, I think, no cases related to those two methods (I could be wrong, but it's almost none).

Read the story. It's actually really interesting, and it sounds like the school district and health department are handling it appropriately and brilliantly.

We've got to give credit where credit is due.

I think it's important to note that this is impressively handled by a mainstream media source, where as the HIV/AIDS case mentioned earlier this evening was not as well handled by a gay media source.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It was irresponsible, not brilliant, to announce 50 students were exposed to HIV without substantiation.