U.S. HEALTH RESOURCES AND SERVICES

TEXAS: More Texas Schools Teach Safe Sex with Abstinence
Fri, 16 Sep 2011 – http://www.texastribune.org

Most Texas school districts that teach sex education choose abstinence-only programs, according to a forthcoming Texas Freedom Network analysis of Texas Education Agency data. However, a growing number of schools are moving toward abstinence-plus curricula that include instruction about contraceptive methods, condoms, and safer sex. In the conservative west Texas town of Midland, 172 pregnant girls attended district public schools last year. “These are girls as young as 13 that are pregnant, some of them are on their second pregnancies,” said Tracey Dees, the district’s health services supervisor, noting many students also report STDs. Eighteen months ago, the board chose to implement a new comprehensive curriculum for seventh and eighth grades. In Harris County, nine districts have or are adopting an abstinence-plus program, said Susan Tortolero, director of University of Texas’ Prevention Research Center, who developed the Midland curriculum. “It’s like we’re beyond this argument of abstinence, abstinence-plus,” she said. “Districts want something that works.” Districts in Austin, Corpus Christi, San Antonio, and Plano also have moved toward comprehensive sex education. Research shows that teaching teens about condoms and birth control delays, rather than encourages, sexual initiation, Tortolero said. The Spring Branch Independent School District outside Houston began examining abstinence-plus programs about three years ago. After seeing a slight increase in pregnancies and reviewing behavioral trends, the district will implement the new curriculum next year, said Rebecca Fuchs, the district’s director of health and fitness. Texas had the third-highest rate of births among teens ages 15-19 in the nation, according to 2008 data from the National Center for Health Statistics. Last year, the state health department decided not to apply for federal comprehensive sex education funding. Texas remains the largest recipient of federal abstinence-only grants.

NEW YORK: West Village Now a Center for People Growing Older with HIV
Mon, 19 Sep 2011 – http://www.dnainfo.com

Nearly 20 years after HIV diagnoses peaked in New York City, the West Village neighborhood is home to many people aging with the disease, according to the Visiting Nurse Service of New York (VNSNY). Of New Yorkers living with HIV, 75 percent are age 40 or older, the age group that also accounted for nearly 42 percent of new diagnoses in 2009, the city health department says. “A significant number of people with HIV, because of antiretroviral drugs, are aging with the disease,” said Andresa Persons, VNSNY’s director of AIDS services. Founded in 1893, VNSNY was the city’s first care provider for people with HIV/AIDS, Persons said. Today the group treats 235 HIV/AIDS patients citywide, involving nurses, social workers, nutritionists, and home health aides. Early during the epidemic, “People wanted to stay away from people with this illness because so much was unknown,” said Arthur Fitting, a nurse who has worked with HIV/AIDS patients in the neighborhood for more than 25 years. Over the last 10 years, changes in the West Village and Greenwich Village have complicated patients’ care, Fitting said. “With the influx of higher-cost real estate, the elderly people in the Village have had to find other housing,” he said. The closing of St. Vincent’s hospital also affected seniors with HIV/AIDS, he said. “Even a change in physicians, much less the disappearance of a whole facility, has a big impact on their care,” Fitting said. “It doesn’t take much to rock the boat for this population.” A “community effort” of social organizations and churches was instrumental for patient support in the 1980s and ’90s, Fitting said. “That community effort is not as visible today, but it still exists,” he said.