Unit 3: Disease prevention.

Background Bonus

Unit Objectives

Through September of 1993, a total of 1,415 cases of AIDS in adolescents were reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Although this number may not be impressive at first, consider the fact that there was only 1 case in 1981 and a total of 946 cases through 1992. The increase is dramatic and a cause for concern.

Many teenagers are engaging in behaviors that may put them at increased risk of acquiring AIDS. A national study conducted by the Johns Hopkins Institute shows that 65 percent of all teenagers are sexually active by age 17. Not only does this put them at high risk for HIV infection, but it also puts them at high risk for other sexually transmitted diseases, which affect an estimated 2.5 million teens a year.

Students learn to

* understand the history of smallpox;

* identify the differences between communicable and noncommunicable diseases;