<p>It sounds like the school is handling the situation as well as could be expected. These students will be in my thoughts. Hopefully there will be lots of negative HIV tests. </p>
<p>My guess is an infected needle is to blame, but they’re rightly not releasing any of that information.</p>
<p>Corranged, this is an honest query: what caused you to guess it’s from an infected needle? There were several other possible causes mentioned in the article as well: tatoos; piercings; sexual contact. Is it something about 50-at-once?</p>
<p>Well, first of all, the article makes it sound as if one person was responsible for the exposure. In the sex possibility, one person would have to have had sex with fifty different people at this school. For significant risk of exposure, we’d probably be talking about a male as opposed to a female and unprotected sex. I can’t see a guy having unprotected sex with fifty different people. Why not the same person multiple times? And how would this one guy be responsible for all fifty people? In a sex situation, we’d be looking at a web of exposed people. You wouldn’t talk about one person being responsible for all exposures, including people he never had sex with. It just doesn’t add up. </p>
<p>Tattoos and piercings are possible, I guess, but it would still be a strange situation. It wouldn’t be a piercing/tattoo parlor or students at other schools would have been exposed. Why would so many students get piercings by some individual as opposed to a piercing place in the mall or whatever? Same with tattoos. You’re supposed to be 18 (at least in my state?), but that’s not a hard problem to bypass. We would also be talking about one infected needle to do the piercing or whatever. Why would all the piercings or tattooing happen at once?</p>
<p>An infected needle for drugs seems most plausible to me. We’d be talking about the HIV+ guy using the needle himself and then passing it along to a group of people. It wouldn’t be fifty people at once (probably), but if this drugging up happens regularly and if every time the needle is infected because of this one person, close to fifty people could definitely face exposure.</p>
<p>Corranged, the point is that the person would not have had to have intercourse with 50. If he/she had sex with 3 people and they each had sex with 3 and…you get the point.</p>
<p>I used to teach middle school health. We had an exercise in which we had kids shake hands in sequential order and we challenged them to understand that if they had been having sex with that person, from an infectious disease perspective they were having sex with everyone that person had had sex with and…it just goes on.</p>
<p>Yeah, but how would the point of origin person know the potential exposure was 50 students? I’m thinking there were approx. 50 people at a party where drugs were. And potentially all those people could have used out of a communal supply.</p>
<p>Unless you had a particularly close group of friends who know all of their friends sexual behavior (unlikely in HS), then I seriously doubt they would guesstimate an amount.</p>
Yes, I know. I said that. The point is they wouldn’t trace the infection back to a single individual. It would be inaccurate and nearly impossible.</p>
<p>I’m guessing it’s due to sexual contact rather than sharing a needle. Try to find 50 teenagers willing to stick a needle into their body let alone share the same needle. You’re much more likely to find 50 teenagers who are sexually active. As stated earlier, it doesn’t have to be one person exposing HIV directly to 50 different people as Anitaw clearly explained above.</p>
<p>I “get” that lesson, in terms of teaching kids responsibility.</p>
<p>But, without being any kind of doctor, I thought I’d also read that the actual practical odds of contracting HIV so indirectly are MUCH less than if you have sex directly with the HIV-infected person.</p>
<p>Still that’s reason to test 50 people, to rule out even the smallest of possibilities. I’m just saying it’s not as likely to end up with 50 positive readings.</p>
<p>While we’re speculating, couldn’t 50 kids have gone to the same tattoo parlor and that parlor was found to be using infectious needles? Corranged points out that, if so, it would have involved more high schools than one. Perhaps, though, credit goes to the one h.s. for having the communication networks to discover a community-based problem under their school’s roof, while other schools aren’t yet onto it.</p>
<p>Status of HIV Testing at Normandy Senior
High School
Normandy School District Requests Fair and Balanced
Reporting by Media Outlets
SAINT LOUIS COUNTY, MO (October 23, 2008) The Saint Louis County Department of Health recently contacted the Normandy School District about a potential health concern involving students in our school district. Information obtained by the Health Department during a routine disease investigation indicated that some students who attend Normandy Senior High School may have been exposed to HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
The Department of Health has discussed the matter with the Normandy School District. Both the department and the district are in the process of implementing a collaborative response to minimize the impact on the students attending school there. The department has begun providing assistance to the Normandy School District in the form of free, confidential HIV testing. The school district has communicated with the students parents and encouraged them to have open and forthright discussions with their children about the urgency of this situation. In the event families determine that their children may have engaged in any unsafe behavior, both the Department of Health and the Normandy School District are advising that those students be tested.
The Normandy School District calls on media outlets to report on this story in a factual and accurate way, and to resist the temptation to sensationalize this story at the expense of the students and the District. Erroneous media reports have already caused confusion and concern within the community at a time that calls for a calm and thoughtful response that puts the well-being of the students first. Several media outlets have been reporting false information, and the district would like to clarify the following:
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At this point, only one person in the initial investigation has been identified as HIV positive.
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There has never been any indication as to whether that one individual who tested positive for HIV is a Normandy High School student.
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There has been no indication that any potential exposure took place at the high school campus site, as has been erroneously reported in the media.
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No faculty or staff members have been identified as having potentially been exposed, as has been erroneously reported in the media.
DESTINATION: WORLD CLASS
In response to this situation, the Normandy School District is conducting an aggressive informational campaign to make certain that all of their students and the families of those students gain a heightened awareness of the HIV threat and its potential impact in the community. Accurate information is the key to protecting students and minimizing the likelihood of a similar situation occurring in the future.
These developments are certainly a concern for the students who may be affected as well as their families, and both the Department of Health and the Normandy School District request that the media and the public respect the privacy of the students and their families at this time. It is also requested that the media and the public not take any action that would interfere with the teaching and learning process at any of the Normandy school campuses. Please understand that existing law prohibits the Department of Health and Normandy School District from releasing any personal or medical information about anyone.</p>
<p>While we’re speculating, couldn’t 50 kids have gone to the same tattoo parlor and that parlor was found to be using infectious needles?</p>
<p>or to the same dentist.
I contracted Hepatitis B sometime after I had my youngest daughter and when she was about 4 and I tried to donate blood. No one else in my family has been exposed.
I don’t use blood products or illegal drugs- and have quite a pedestrian sex life.
I really don’t know where I got it & I do realize Hep B lives longer on surfaces than HIV- but still a mystery.</p>