Survey: teens lack AIDS knowledge

Ever wondered what high school students know about AIDS? Two decades after the federal government mandated in-school instruction on the life-threatening virus, Weekly Reader Research surveyed American high schoolers to find out if it’s working.

Of the 1,000 polled in grades nine through 12:

  • Four percent do not believe that AIDS can be spread through sexual intercourse.
  • Seventy-six percent do not know how many people die of AIDS every day.
  • Eighty-seven percent believe that AIDS is mostly a problem for homosexual males, African Americans and women.
  • Thirty-six percent believe that AIDS is an issue for the international community but not the United States.
  • Nineteen percent believe AIDS can be spread through casual contact with an infected person.
  • Eight percent believe AIDS can be spread through tainted food.
  • Sixty-two percent believe that students should begin learning about AIDS as early as middle school.

The survey, conducted March 913, polled 520 boys and 480 girls.