24 Hour Counselor: I'm Afraid I May Have AIDS

Hi, I'm John. Thanks for coming to this site. You know, a lot of teens are confused about the subject of AIDS, and it's really hard to know what to believe with all the stories you hear.

To provide help, I would like to introduce you to a friend of mine. Wayne Grant is a physician who is interested in the health and well-being of teenagers. He works with teens every day in his medical practice, and he understands their concerns. I am going to ask him some questions. Dr. Grant, what exactly is AIDS?

Dr. Grant: The word AIDS is an acronym for a much longer official name, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. AIDS is an infectious disease caused by a virus now known as the HIV or Human Immune Deficiency virus. This virus can be caught from other people by various means. Slowly but surely, it infects the body of the new victim. The infection, once it begins, produces a variety of symptoms and physical effects.

John: Why is there so much concern about AIDS?

Dr. Grant: AIDS is such a frightening disease because there is no cure. It affects just about every organ in your body. After the slowly progressive course of the illness, it always causes death. The symptoms can be treated, and the course of the disease can be slowed a little, but death is certain.

John: Why is the AIDS virus so serious and so deadly?

Dr. Grant: The AIDS virus is so deadly because it attacks the heart of our defense system. The body's immune system normally provides us with the weapons we need to win the constant battles of evading viruses, bacteria, fungi, and other causes of diseases. This defense system is powerful, but it isn't perfect. Most attacks are detected and beaten off with ease. We don't even know anything is happening in our bodies.

John: Why doesn't this happen with the AIDS virus?

Dr. Grant: John, that is a very good question. We have learned that the AIDS virus creeps in like a thief in the night and invades immune cells. It lives within the immune cells, divides, and keeps on growing slowly, destroying the immune cell itself. While it destroys the immune system's ability to respond to disease, the AIDS virus spreads to all parts of the body. Because the immune system has been weakened, other kinds of diseases can attack the body, eventually causing serious illness and eventual death. The AIDS virus is a powerful enemy. Unfortunately, we have not discovered any real weapon to fight it once it has gotten into the body.

John: It must be terrible to have AIDS or even to think you might have it. What are the symptoms?

Dr. Grant: The symptoms are subtle and not very specific. There may be repeated minor infections, general tiredness, unexplained weight loss, or other non-specific symptoms such as diarrhea, cough, rashes, sores on the skin. Many of these symptoms are similar to those of other common illnesses such as a cold or the flu. The difference is the severity and the duration.

A person cannot self-diagnose AIDS. The symptoms are very general and unspecific. The only way that the disease can be diagnosed is by a physical examination and by medical tests that detect the presence of the AIDS virus.

John: Dr. Grant, there seems to be a lot of confusion about how somebody gets AIDS. Exactly how is this disease caught?

Dr. Grant: That is the most important question. Since no effective treatment exists, prevention is the key. And AIDS is a totally preventable disease. AIDS transmission occurs in a very few particular ways. It is transmitted by sexual contact, blood contamination, and from a pregnant mother to her unborn child. In other words, in order to catch AIDS from another person, you must come in contact with the blood or body fluids of the other person.

John: I can understand most of that, but what do you mean by blood contamination?

Dr. Grant: Blood contamination happens when blood from an infected individual enters directly into another person's bloodstream. One way this has happened in the past  is through blood transfusions in which blood from an infected individual was given to an uninfected person. It's extremely rare in the U.S. today. Since becoming aware of the AIDS virus, special tests and some special precautions have been set up to decrease the possibility of contaminated blood being used in hospitals.

One of the common ways for blood contamination to occur is through intravenous drug use. In this situation, a person addicted to drugs uses a dirty needle which has also been used by an AIDS-infected individual. In the process, they not only inject themselves with drugs, they inject themselves with the AIDS virus. This is now a major problem, and many new cases of AIDS are caused by drug use like this.

It's also possible to pass on the virus with shared tattoo needles, for instance, or razor blades, or even using the same toothbrush. The common element in all of these is getting blood of an infected person directly into the bloodstream of another person.

John: I can understand how the virus then can pass then from a pregnant mother to her unborn baby.

Dr. Grant: Yes, there is continuous contact between the blood of the mother and the blood of the unborn baby. So it is obvious that the virus can pass from the mother to the child. That's one of the saddest legacies we have from the AIDS epidemic. The innocent child is born with a fatal infection.

John: What about sexual transmission of the virus? How does that work?

Dr. Grant: The AIDS virus is transmitted from one person to another primarily through sexual activity. Any form of sexual intercourse can transmit the infection.

John: But I thought it was only through homosexual activity that a person could catch AIDS.

Dr. Grant: Certainly, homosexual activity makes you very vulnerable. But any type of sexual intercourse can lead to infection when one of the persons involved has the virus.

John: Are there other ways of getting AIDS, like kissing or from toilet seats?

Dr. Grant: Other forms of activity are very unlikely to result in infection. As far as kissing, the normal mouth-to-mouth kiss is not dangerous at all. Deep, hard, intensive kissing with biting could be a way of transmitting the disease from an infected person to a non-infected person, especially if one of the individuals has cuts or sores on the mouth. The virus cannot be passed through contact with a toilet seat or a water fountain. The virus is very fragile outside the human body, and it dies immediately.

John: AIDS is a really scary thing, Dr. Grant. How can a teen avoid getting it?

Dr. Grant: That's probably the most important question we'll discuss. The avoidance of AIDS is actually very simple. Teens can be virtually sure that they will not get AIDS if they avoid using drugs and practice a biblically-based sex life.

John: What exactly do you mean by a biblically-based sex life?

Dr. Grant: Biblically-based sex means refraining from all forms of sexual intercourse until you are in a committed, faithful marriage relationship with your husband or wife. All partners who are faithful in this way will never become contaminated with the AIDS virus. They can enjoy their sexuality in a mutually enjoyable and exciting way. They will have no need to worry about the consequences of their sexual activities.

Promiscuity is always very dangerous. The more sexual partners you have, the more likely you will come across somebody who has the virus. It only takes one sex act with an infected person to become contaminated for life. So the key to avoiding AIDS totally and completely is abstinence.

John: Nowadays we are hearing a lot about safe sex.

Dr. Grant: The only safe sex is a lifetime commitment to one uninfected partner. No other sexual practice is 100 percent safe. Condoms, even when used compulsively with all sexual intercourse, do not work all the time. Few teens acting on impulse use condoms 100 percent of the time. Safe, promiscuous sex simply doesn't exist.

John: Dr. Grant, what you are telling me sounds a lot like what most teens have heard at their church about drug use and sexuality. In fact, it sounds a lot like the Ten Commandments.

Dr. Grant: You are so right. You know, some teenagers have come to think of the Ten Commandments as something old-fashioned, out-of-date, irrelevant. In fact, many people see the Ten Commandments as well as the laws of God in general as coming from a God who is sour-faced, unhappy, and stern. They think of God as One who tries to make the lives of men and women--and especially teenagers--unpleasant and miserable.

First of all, God is a loving and caring God. He is also a God with a sense of humor, and a God who loves life because He created it. He wants life to be lived to the fullest. Originally, God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses because He saw men and women hurting themselves through the way they lived. So He spoke to Moses and gave him the Ten Commandments.

In a real sense, we should think of the Ten Commandments like an owner's manual. When we buy a car, we find in the glove compartment of that car a manual which tells us how the car works. It tells us how to turn it on, how to turn it off, how to put it in gear. It tells us how to change the oil, how the different parts of the car work, and what to do to keep it working to its highest efficiency level.

The Ten Commandments and the other laws of God that we find in the Bible are God's owner's manual for us. God is our maker, our manufacturer. He knows how we work. He knows what makes us run smoothly--spiritually, emotionally, and physically. He knows what attitudes and practices will work out best for us in the long run, and He also knows the ones that will be harmful to us in the long run.

So when He gave us the Ten Commandments and His other rules, He was saying, "I have made you and I know how you work. If you will live by these rules that I am giving to you, I promise that you'll work well. Your mind, soul, and body will work together for the maximum good so that you can have the happiest and most meaningful life possible."

When God gave us the seventh commandment and said, "You shall not commit adultery" (Ex. 20:14, NKJV),¹ He was not wanting to make our lives miserable. He said that because He knew about AIDS for one thing. He also knew about the emotional consequences of promiscuity, abortion, and premature sexual commitment. He gave us His rules because He loves us, and because He wants to make our lives as rich as possible.

John: Dr. Grant, I haven't heard you say that sex itself is bad.

Dr. Grant: Absolutely not. Our sexuality is one of those things that God created in us when He made us. And if you remember going back to Genesis in the story of creation, everything that God made He said was good.

God made our sexuality, and it is good. However, it is a very powerful part of our personality and our being. It must be used correctly or it becomes a force for hurt and pain rather than good. If it is used as God has guided us and directed us, then our sexuality is a beautiful, positive, exciting part of our nature.

John: What if a teen has not lived up to the ideal of sexual abstinence at this point? Should he worry?

Dr. Grant: Any teenager who has been promiscuous, who has had sex with many other partners or with someone who has AIDS--he or she is at some risk for having caught the disease. He needs to be tested. If he or she does have the virus, he or she can immediately begin to receive medical care. Blood tests are available which are fairly simple. And the sooner you know, the better chances you have.

John: How does somebody go about getting these tests done?

Dr. Grant: It can be done in any doctor's office or medical lab. Some communities have special clinics where you can have the test done.

John: What should a teenager do if he or she is worried about having AIDS?

Dr. Grant: I would certainly encourage him to talk to somebody he can trust. Hopefully, it would be a family physician so that he could get a check-up and receive whatever testing is necessary. If he doesn't feel comfortable talking to his family's doctor, he might consider talking to his youth minister or pastor. But I hope he can talk to his parents.

John: It sounds like the best plan is not to get AIDS in the first place.

Dr. Grant: You are certainly right about that. Someday there may be a cure for AIDS, but there is not one now. It can be treated and slowed down, but we don't have any real cure. So you are right. Prevention is the key.

John: AIDS is not the only disease that someone has to worry about if they are sexually active, is it?

Dr. Grant: There are several other sexually transmitted diseases that are caught primarily or only through sexual intercourse. Many teens have heard of these diseases such as gonorrhea, which is painful and is a common cause of sterility in women. Herpes is another common problem today. It's another disease without a cure, although it is not fatal like AIDS. So there are many reasons to practice biblically-based sexuality.

John: Thanks, Dr. Grant, for all your help. Do you have any last comments that you would like to make?

Dr. Grant: This has been a difficult subject to talk about. Most of us don't like to talk about things that are as serious as this. We don't like to talk about our own sexuality, but it is a subject that we must talk about.

God has shown us how to avoid AIDS by practicing responsible, biblically-based sex. The Bible brings us the message that God loves us regardless of what we have done, regardless of any mistakes we have made in the past. He will forgive us if we ask Him. And He will help us overcome any problems that we have.

Remember: You are not alone. God is there with you, and He cares for you and for what happens to you.

_______
¹Scripture quotations marked "NKJV" are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Back to Top of Page

The 24-Hour Counselor © 1999, Broadman and Holman Publishers.
All rights reserved. Compiled by Richard Ross.