Youth HIV/AIDS educator,
Bob Bowers brings passion, humor,
as well as a wealth of knowledge
and life experience in living with the disease to his
talks. Each presentation
is unique and topics may
vary based on his audience. Whether speaking in schools, universities, jails or colleges, his
talks are real, frank,
from the heart and extremely
thought provoking.
Mr. Bowers possesses the
unique quality of touching
peoples hearts in a profound
and lasting manner. Having
the ability to keep it real
and passionate, Bob has
been able to gain a wide
array of support from lawmakers,
educators, media, law enforcement,
Principals, Professors,
AIDS Service Organizations,
as well as the youth who
are absolutely in awe of
Bob and his passion for
life and compassion for
others.
Bob
Bowers' story is truly amazing. When he was 10 years old, his mother died and when he was a young adult, he contracted
HIV by sharing a needle with his friends. However, he has been able to look past all of his hard times and see the wonder and beauty of life.
His story was uplifting and his speech was very informative. He seemed very happy and treasured the fact that he was even alive; this should be a message to all people.
Young people remain at the center
of the
HIV/AIDS epidemic in terms of rates of infection, vulnerability, impact,
and potential for change. They have grown up in a world changed by AIDS but many
still lack comprehensive and correct knowledge about how to prevent
HIV
infection.
I do not know
how to thank you enough. It is hard enough for me to even
think about getting
AIDS, but to have the integrity to
openly discuss it with hundreds of kids is truly incredible.
You are an amazing person and I am so glad I had the
opportunity to meet you. Thank you so much for showing me
the value of life and I wish you the best.
~Joseph L.
Bob Bowers
&
Kalee Garland speaking about living with HIV/AIDS at Linn Benton Community College
in Oregon for World
AIDS Day
Bob
was amazing. He is a
great
speaker. He also
has a sense of humor
which made this more
informing and
entertaining than a
lecture. I expected an
old man who looks fairly
sickly, but instead
there is this young
looking,
tattooed,
pierced man that
understands what our
generation is going
through. He opened my
mind to be thankful for
what I have and that
there is not really
anything wrong with
having
HIV/AIDS. Sure,
it is painful, but
before he came I had a
slight fear of
STIs and
people with them. But
Bob was so welcoming and
I saw that he really
helped other people to
open up to him and be
thankful for him coming
to talk to us. I hope to
see him again. America
needs to know the facts
of
STIs and that there
is no reason to fear
learning about them or
someone living with
them.
Basic Information About
HIV/AIDS and College Students
HIV Infection Among College Students
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the American College
Health Association estimate that 1 in 500 college students is infected with
HIV1. This estimate is based on the results of a blind study conducted at 19
American universities, where anonymous blood samples were tested at campus
health centers. A follow-up to this study, which was expanded to include 24
colleges, found the incidence of
HIV infection on these college campuses to be
about .2 percent, which is consistent with the earlier findings. The CDC
estimates that 1 in 250 Americans (all age groups) is infected with
HIV.
College Students' Risk For Contracting HIV
Factors such as peer pressure, lack of maturity, and alcohol and drug use put
college students at risk for HIV infection. College students may have
unprotected sex while under the influence of alcohol or other drugs, which they
ordinarily might not do. Abandoning safer sex techniques, failing to use condoms
correctly and consistently, and having sex while under the influence can lead to
possible
infection with HIV or other sexually transmitted diseases. Also, date
rape, an increasing problem on college campuses, is associated with alcohol use
and may present a risk for infection.
Our
heartfelt thanks to Marquette University, Watumishi and
the Peer Health Educators. Your generosity of spirit and
commitment to the
fight against AIDS in Wisconsin
and Africa is truly admirable.
Researchers have conducted many studies to determine whether the threat of HIV
infection causes college students to alter risky behaviors. Researchers have
used Knowledge, Attitude, Belief, and Behavior (KABB) models and have developed
questionnaires that attempt to measure behavior change.
HIV/AIDS prevention
theorists believe that increased knowledge, along with positive attitudes and
beliefs about HIV/AIDS, will lead to positive behavior changes, i.e., behaviors
that are less risky, or safer, such as use of condoms, abstinence, and avoidance
of risky situations. However, studies indicate that increased knowledge of
HIV/AIDS does not always result in a positive behavior change. Use of alcohol or
other drugs often alters judgments about the perceived risks of a particular
situation.
Effective Ways to Educate College Students About HIV/AIDS The American College
Health Association has developed a handbook that guides campus authorities in
establishing HIV/AIDS policies and effective education programs.
Peer education programs often have been used to facilitate
AIDS education, as
well as general health education courses. The entire May 1993 issue of The
Journal of American College Health 14 is devoted to evaluation and discussion of
peer health education programs. Researchers have conducted numerous studies to
determine the effectiveness of peer education programs and most show that
knowledge and positive attitudes and beliefs increase as a result of peer
education. However, behavior change is often extremely difficult to measure. The
Sexuality Information and Education Council of the U.S. (SIECUS) is another
resource for peer educators. SIECUS can identify materials on their database and
create bibliographies on sexuality education.
Some colleges and universities offer courses on
HIV/AIDS for credit. These
courses generally cover basic HIV/AIDS information. One such program at Rutgers
University covers the basics, as well as in-depth information on a variety of
specialized topics. For-credit
HIV/AIDS courses have provided an organized,
logical, nonjudgmental, comprehensive approach to sexuality. Studies indicate
that many college students already have a broad-based knowledge of basic issues,
and a more in-depth approach is often needed to provide challenging courses.
HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria
are devastating entire communities
and economies. Poor countries
are losing their teachers, doctors
and nurses. Businesses are losing
their workers. Governments
are losing their civil servants.
Families are losing their breadwinners.
TB kills an estimated 2
million people each year
and is the leading cause
of death for people with
AIDS.
At least 1 million people
die from
malaria each year,
mostly children in Africa.
AIDS is the world’s fourth
leading cause of death.
Since first being reported
in 1981, AIDS has killed
over 25 million people.
AIDS killed an estimated
3 million people in 2006
alone.
Globally, 15 million children
have lost one or both parents
to
AIDS. 12 million of those
live in sub-Saharan Africa.
At least one in four teenage girls nationwide has a
sexually transmitted
disease, or more than 3 million teens, according to the first study of its kind
in this age group.
A
virus that causes cervical cancer is by far the most common sexually
transmitted infection in teen girls aged 14 to 19, while the highest overall
prevalence is among black girls — nearly half the blacks studied had at least
one
STD. That rate compared with 20 percent among both whites and
Mexican-American teens, the study from the federal
Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention found.
Among girls who admitted ever having sex, the rate was 40 percent. While some
teens define sex as only intercourse, other types of intimate behavior including
oral sex can spread some infections.
For many, the numbers likely seem "overwhelming because you're talking about
nearly half of the sexually experienced
teens at any one time having evidence of
an
STD," said Dr. Margaret Blythe, an adolescent medicine specialist at Indiana
University School of Medicine and head of the
American Academy of Pediatrics'
committee on adolescence.
But the study highlights what many doctors who treat teens see every day, Blythe
said.
Dr. John Douglas, director of the
CDC's division of
STD prevention, said the
results are the first to examine the combined national prevalence of common
sexually transmitted diseases among adolescent girls. He said they likely
reflect current prevalence rates.
"High STD rates among young women, particularly African-American young women,
are clear signs that we must continue developing ways to reach those most at
risk," Douglas said.
The CDC's Dr. Kevin Fenton said given that
STDs can cause infertility and
cervical cancer in women, "screening, vaccination and other prevention
strategies for sexually active women are among our highest public health
priorities."
The study by CDC researcher Dr. Sara Forhan is an analysis of nationally
representative data on 838 girls who participated in a 2003-04 government health
survey.
Four common diseases were examined —
human papillomavirus, or
HPV, which can
cause cervical cancer and affected 18 percent of girls studied;
chlamydia, which
affected 4 percent;
trichomoniasis, 2.5 percent; and
herpes simplex virus, 2
percent.
Blythe said the results are similar to previous studies examining rates of those
diseases individually.
HPV can cause genital warts but often has no symptoms. A vaccine targeting
several HPV strains recently became available. Douglas said it likely has not
yet had much impact on HPV prevalence rates in
teen girls.
Chlamydia and
trichomoniasis can be treated with antibiotics. The CDC recommends
annual
chlamydia screening for all sexually active women under age 25. It also
recommends the three-dose HPV vaccine for girls aged 11-12 years, and catch-up
shots for females aged 13 to 26.
The American Academy of Pediatrics has similar recommendations.
Douglas said screening tests are underused in part because many
teens don't
think they're at risk, but also, some doctors mistakenly think, "'Sexually
transmitted diseases don't happen to the kinds of patients I see.'"
Blythe said some doctors also are reluctant to discuss
STDs with teen patients
or offer screening because of confidentiality concerns, knowing parents would
have to be told of the results.
The American Academy of Pediatrics supports confidential teen screening, she
said.
Hi,
my name is Marta, and I was in the class you spoke to at
Concordia University last week. I was amazed at how ignorant
I was. I ought to have known better. For the past few
years, I have been part of an
STD prevention organization
and have done many abstinence
presentations in high schools.
What I've seen has been amazing and heartbreaking, but I
never knew anything about
AIDS. Thank you so much for being
able to talk to us. I hope you realize how many lives you
have saved. Your bravery and compassion are truly
inspiring.
Thank you again.
God bless you.
Marta H.-Concordia University
At
the end of 2003, an estimated 1,039,000
to 1,185,000 persons in the United States
were living with
HIV/AIDS.
Centers for Disease Control,
CDC has estimated
that approximately 56,300 people were newly infected with
HIV in 2006 (the most recent year that data are
available). Over half (53%) of these new infections occurred in gay and
bisexual men. African American men and women were also strongly affected and
were estimated to have an incidence rate than was 7 times greater than the
incidence rate among whites.
