AIDS awareness month is upon us, and while great efforts are being made to educate the masses,… AIDS awareness month is upon us, and while great efforts are being made to educate the masses, there is still much work to be done to combat the No. 1 contributor to infection – ignorance.

As college students, we think we are in the know. Donning our slippers and socks and filling our book bags full to the brim, we attend a school that gets closer to Ivy League status every year. Yet still the grim truth about HIV and AIDS escapes us and some are under the impression that AIDS is a gay disease.

According to the Health and Well-Being section of ivillage.com, “Worldwide, over 80 percent of HIV cases are the result of heterosexual intercourse.” The Center for Disease Control also concludes, “In 2000, 38 percent of women reported with AIDS were infected through heterosexual exposure to HIV.”

Contrary to common misconceptions, research suggests that it is in fact women – not gay men – who have steadily become a target for this disease. This is because women are biologically predisposed to infection because of their anatomy. Also, a December 2004 AIDS Epidemic update includes a study in New York City that reports, “Women were more than twice as likely to be infected by a husband or steady boyfriend than by casual sex partners.” Thus, in light of these findings, it seems that what we don’t know could not only hurt us, but also kill us.

Examples of this can be seen in how AIDS is being addressed in Africa. Africa, housing 10 percent of the world’s population, also has 50 percent of the world’s AIDS cases. Early on, at the youngest age of adolescence, Senegal children are taught the concept of abstinence in schools.

In an ABC News report a young Senegalese girl, at the age of 13, was quoted saying, “Our teacher told us that AIDS is a very dangerous disease, only abstinence can save us.” Following her comment the article noted that her classmates “giggled nearby.”

The International Journal of STD and AIDS reports, “The consensus among influential AIDS experts [is] that heterosexual transmission accounts for 90 percent of HIV infections in African adults.”

With AIDS being such a disastrous epidemic in Africa, perhaps abstinence-only training isn’t the most effective. Students who do not have knowledge on the alternative options regarding protection are severely disadvantaged should they choose to have sex. The biggest tragedy of all is a student being infected through oral sex or improper usage of a condom because of a failed attempt at safe sex because abstinence-only sex-ed was their only reference.

If college students are walking around with the idea that AIDS is a gay disease, a child in Africa with considerably less education who is more susceptible to catch the disease is even worse off.

Thus, students in Senegal must know their options. Teachers must realize that they don’t have to choose between abstinence and sex education; they can incorporate the two. Students can be taught about protection and still be educated of the overall ramifications of premarital sex.

Considering that there is still time left in the month of December – and the year after – there are things we can all do to spread awareness. Groups such as the Pitt Program Council and Rainbow Alliance have done an excellent job with educating students about AIDS this past week. It would be nice to see the African Student Organization also assembling for this cause of awareness.

There are 40 million people worldwide suffering from this disease and a lot of them were simply unaware that one night would have such consequences. Ignorance isn’t bliss. We all need to be making sure that we participate in the great efforts being made to get people knowledgeable.

Don’t be in the dark anymore. Be privy to what the Top 10 HIV/AIDS Myths are by logging on to http://aids.about.com/cs/aidsfactsheets/tp/hivmyths.htm.