VIDEO PROJECT

A PowerPoint presentation was created to stress the importance of reaching the youth and young adults of Dallas County.

Dallas County has the highest prevalence rate of HIV infection in Texas. In 2010 there were 908 new cases joining the 13,5000 residents living with HIV/AIDS. The rate of HIV/AIDS in Dallas County is about 37.3 per 100,000 residents.
Adolescents and young adults account for about 39% of all new HIV infections with 50% of all new infections occurring in people under the age of 25. These new infections represent 4.4% of the total HIV/AIDS infections in the United States but represent 9.9% of the undiagnosed infection.

Thus, to reduce this high rate of new HIV infections among adolescents and young adults it is necessary to address two critical area: education and testing.
Young people need to have appropriate education to clear up confusions regarding HIV/AIDS, the modes of transmissions, become aware of contributing risky behaviors, and the need for early detection and treatment. Limited health care access is also an issue among young people. Limitations include that some states require parental consent, inability to pay, lack of transportation, and confidentiality concerns.

This proposal addresses reduction of HIV Infection rate among youth in Dallas County. There should be a comprehensive education and prevention curriculum that is free & easy to understand, starts in school at an early age, and includes resources such as low cost & free family planning centers, youth peer groups, and availability of testing & referral.

A RNA HIV home testing kit is proposed, called GIT (Get Informed Get Tested). By testing for the HIV RNA this kit bypasses the long "window" phase so that people can know their status much earlier after a possible point of infection. The kit is easy to use, uses saliva instead of blood, configured for use by people with visual disability, results in 15 minutes, totally confidential, and available at no or low cost at various community locations.

Hopefully, if young people are educated on risky behaviors, have access to free & easy home test kits to test themselves and new sex partners, and have a peer support group the incidence of new infections among adolescents and young adults in Dallas County can start to decrease.

In addition to the personal devastation of a person discovering they are  HIV/AIDS positive,  there is a tremendous cost burden to the government. Congress funded $38 million for retro-viral medication for one year. The economic cost of HIV infection to the United States is $36.4 billion per year. The annual global cost of treating HIV infections is projected to reach $35 billion in the next 20 years unless there is a reversal in the climbing infection rate.