By From The Chronicle

It is a popular belief to hold around campus (possibly at least partially in jest) that this university has a particularly high sexually transmitted disease rate among students in relation to that of other universities. The factual validity of this claim is unimportant as it serves either as a helpful reminder to always practice safe sex, or as a dangerous mocking of the fact that we do not, depending on who the student is. To those for whom the latter is the case, a subject must be broached that the former might want to pay attention to also.

A new strain of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has been discovered in New York City. This strain is particularly terrifying because it has been observed to be resistent to three of the four major drugs that are used to treat the virus. In addition to this, it acts much more quickly than we are used to, turning into full blown AIDS in a matter of months. The case that was observed was diagnosed in December with what seemed to be a fairly recent infection of the disease and has already progressed. To provide a contrasts, it usually takes more than ten years to make this jump.

Public officials have been admonishing that people have been taking the safe sex practices that were implemented and very successful at containing the disease in the 1980s less seriously since the invent of the treatment drugs. Whether this concern is valid or not, we have a renewed reason to pay attention to this problem. It is imperative that we internalize this issue so that we may deal with it in whatever way we find appropriate, and then study and agree upon the best way to communcate this crisis to the next generation.