US College Students Misjudge Scope of HIV Epidemic

Many US college students may underestimate the proportion of people with HIV who live in Africa, while overestimating the number of people living with the virus in the United States, new survey findings suggest. Students also feel that the United States has a greater duty to provide drugs for people with HIV/AIDS in North America than to those with the disease in Africa, the researchers note.

If such ideas reflect the general population's sentiments, it may be difficult for AIDS organizations to raise money and garner the political support needed to help people with HIV/AIDS in Africa, said lead investigator Timothy Dowd of the University of Miami in Florida.

Dowd and his team presented the results of their survey of 195 college undergraduates last month at the American Psychological Society's annual meeting in New Orleans. Roughly 70 percent of the 40 million or so people infected with HIV worldwide live in Africa, while 2.4 percent live in the United States, Dowd explained. Because the burden of HIV/AIDS falls on the poorest nations, advocates for people with the disease and many public health experts argue that the United States and other industrialized nations have a responsibility to help the developing world deal with the epidemic.

To investigate perceptions of US college students on HIV/AIDS in Africa and North America, Dowd's team surveyed students about their knowledge of the epidemic and their sympathies toward infected individuals. On average, the students thought 38 percent of HIV infected individuals lived in Africa, while they estimated that nearly 14 percent lived in the United States. Dowd said the survey also revealed that students were sympathetic to women who had contracted HIV from their husbands and to infants who contracted the infection from their mothers, but were much less sympathetic to female prostitutes and their male clientele who became infected through unprotected sex.

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