South Carolina: SHARE Informs Students About AIDS

Students at the University of South Carolina (USC) are using World AIDS Day to elevate the profile of sexual health on campus.

"We want to keep students, our campus, and the community alert and not condone risky behaviors," said Ebony Allen, SHARE's World AIDS Day coordinator.

USC's student sexual health awareness activities, which uses the acronym SHARE, hands out about 15,000 condoms every year along with printed material on safe-sex practices. In addition to World AIDS Day events, SHARE launched a campaign in October that focused on domestic violence awareness and in the spring of 2010 will put on "Project Condom."

Wilson called attention to the disproportionate effect of HIV/AIDS among South Carolina's African-American community. While African Americans comprise one-third of South Carolina's population, they account for seven of every 10 newly diagnosed cases of HIV.

Some other sexual health statistics advanced by SHARE include the following:

• South Carolina ranks eighth in the nation for new cases of AIDS.
• People under the age of 25 account for one in five of every newly diagnosed cases of HIV.
• Every year, South Carolina reports 775 new cases of HIV.
• Among females, African Americans account for eight of every 10 newly diagnosed cases of HIV/AIDS in South Carolina.

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