ALTHOUGH the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) epidemic has been developing for years, the main focus has been on adults with the disease and secondarily on children. Until the last year or two, little attention has been paid to adolescents.
This may seem reasonable if one considers that just 1% of reported AIDS cases occur in those 13 to 21 years old. However, an increasing number of cases, the realization that most young adults were infected during adolescence, and the recognition that certain behavioral and psychological factors put adolescents at high risk have increased interest in defining and preventing the disease in this age group.
Some attention was drawn to this problem at the Fourth International Conference on AIDS held in Stockholm, Sweden (JAMA. 1988;260:757-758). During the last year, additional information has been gathered, but much remains to be learned, and even more remains to be done to contain the epidemic