HIV Education

I've been thinking a lot about how low the chances of getting HIV are and how no one ever talks about the less than one percent chance of contracting HIV when having unprotected sex with someone who is HIV positive. This website outlines what should be taught in when educating people about HIV/AIDS, but it fails to mention the unlikeliness of contracting the disease. The reason for HIV/AIDS education is to raise awareness and work toward eliminating ignorance. I just feel like I've been taught to be ignorant because I've been tricked into thinking I am definitely  going to get HIV if I have unprotected sex. It's effective because people are motivated by fear, but it's not true. I can see the other side of that too. Saying something has a less than one percent chance of happening translates to most people as this will never ever happen to them. It's easy to forget someone has to be that one percent. It's also hard to reinforce how the likelihood of contracting HIV increases after every occurrence of unprotected sex with someone who is HIV positive because people latch on to the unlikeliness of less than one percent. It just feels like educators leave out important information because they assume it will cause people to ignore the consequences, and I feel like my mental capacity is being underestimated.