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AIDS
Kerry's story
What choices can you make to show that you value yourself and your future? As a child growing up in Maine, Kerry had dreams: getting married, having kids, and a career. When she was 15, she found out that the guy who was her second sex partner had HIV. She was tested, too – and life as she knew it ended.
Today, people who take medications can hope to live a longer life. But HIV is still a deadly disease.
Kerry understands why it's so difficult to consider yourself at risk for HIV. After her diagnosis, she sometimes wondered if the doctors had made a mistake. She didn't feel sick.
“I know that's just denial,” she says. “If I can think like that when I live with this disease twenty-four hours a day, I can understand how you could deny that AIDS could happen to you.”
Kerry wishes she had been more honest with herself about the risks she was taking in having unprotected sexual intercourse as a teen. She wishes she'd loved herself more.
“I wish I'd valued myself more,” she says. “If I had, I would have postponed having sex. I would have talked with my partner about whether we were ready to have sex. If you can't talk with your partner, maybe you're NOT ready.”
To stay healthy, you have to be honest with yourself and others.
“Making a decision to be healthy is one thing,” she says. “Acting in a way that will keep you healthy is the real challenge. It would probably help to talk about it with a friend, someone you trust, and definitely with your partner. But you can do it. You can stay healthy. You can save your life.”
Kerry died at the age of 22 from complications of AIDS. Her mother, father, and sister were at her side. They supported and loved Kerry every day of her life. Kerry said that she hopes others can learn from her words, and choose to take care of themselves.
“I hope that young people realize that they can do absolutely anything that they want to do,” Kerry says. “They can be anything they want to be. What they do now, will affect their tomorrow, and will affect their lives years from now."
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What choices can you make to show that you value yourself and your future?
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It's A Fact.
Every hour, two young Americans become newly infected with HIV.1
Forty-seven percent of women under the age of 24 with HIV were infected during sexual intercourse.1
Only 10 percent of teens with HIV have been tested and know they are infected.1
Hundreds of thousands of Americans have HIV, but don’t know it. 2
Dealing With It.
A lot of young people are postponing sex. Don’t let yourself be pressured into doing something you don’t want to do.
Make and keep a promise to yourself that if you have sex, you’ll always use a latex condom correctly every time you have sex – from start to finish.
Kerry denied that she could have HIV. HIV doesn’t discriminate. If you put yourself at risk for HIV, you can contract the virus. (Read the column How HIV Spreads)
Anonymous and confidential testing is available. If you test negative, you can take steps to stay healthy. If you’re HIV positive, you can take steps to protect your health and that of your partners. Visit www.hivtest.org to learn more.
CDC National Prevention Information Network
800-458-5231 (English/Spanish)
800-243-7012 (TTY)
Hear more from Kerry in In Our Own Words: Teens and AIDS (DVD/VHS)
HIV Columns on abouthealth.com sponsored by
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1. AIDS Action
2. CDC
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