BY HEIDI
ULRICHSEN
Ecole secondaire Macdonald-Cartier student Alex Vincent looked
a little embarrassed when he was asked what he knows about
HIV/AIDS or other sexually transmitted diseases.
"In Grades 7 and 8 we learned about AIDS, but not much since
then,"  said the 17-year-old, who stopped to chat at a
booth about sexual health outside his school's cafeteria. "I
don't think we're getting the right information about sexually
transmitted diseases. That's probably why you don't see many
students looking at the information."
HIV/AIDS is transmitted through direct contact of a mucous
membrane or the bloodstream with a bodily fluid containing the
virus, such as blood, semen, vaginal fluid, preseminal fluid,
and breast milk.  People can get the virus through anal,
vaginal or oral sex, blood transfusions, contaminated
hypodermic needles (often used by intravenous drug addicts),
exchange between mother and baby during pregnancy, childbirth
or breastfeeding, or exposure to bodily fluids.
Information about HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted diseases and
blood-borne diseases such as Hepatitis C, and how to prevent
the spread of some diseases by using condoms was handed out at
high schools and post-secondary students during AIDS Awareness
Week, which ends today.
High school students tend to grab the information and laugh
about it, but the point is  they're learning something
new, says Danielle Moncion, a child and youth worker student at
Cambrian College who is on placement with Access AIDS.
"I think it's extremely important because the majority of
adults and youth don't know their risk factors," she says. "HIV
is still, per capital, worse in Sudbury than it is in Toronto.
Hepatitis C is also on the rise in Sudbury as well."
Moncion wasn't allowed to hand out condoms at high schools
although they were distributed with AIDS information to
post-secondary students.
"The majority of high schools have nurse practitioners, and
they want the students to go to the nurse practitioners and get
information," she says.  "I don't personally think that's
a good idea because I think they're too embarrassed to go and
see the nurse practitioner. They have to do this in front of
their teachers, which is uncomfortable for them."
