Although one in 500 U.S. college students are infected with the AIDS virus, so far no NIU students have tested positive to the virus at University Health Service.

The U.S. Center for Disease Control reported in the Nov. 29, 1990 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine that one in 500 blood samples from randomly chosen U.S. college students was infected with the AIDS virus.

The study stated further spread of the deadly disease is likely on campuses unless students change their sex habits.

The report estimates between 25,000 and 35,000 college students could be infected with the AIDS virus.

While University Health Service treats many students with sexually transmitted diseases, students with AIDS must be getting tested elsewhere, said Rosemary Lane, director of the health service.

Another possible reason for the lack of documented cases at NIU is the fact that the disease is hard to catch and takes time to spread, Lane said.

“Although their sexual activity is not any less, most students simply haven’t had the occasion to catch AIDS,” Lane said.

Lane said the service has offered confidential AIDS testing since 1987, and has tested hundreds of students. The cost of preliminary testing is $20.

Health officials at the CDC in Atlanta say heterosexuals, especially women, could be at greater risk of contracting the disease than they realize.

According to their statistics, during the 1980s more than 55,000 cases of AIDS were reported in the U.S. Heterosexual transmission of HIV was presumed responsible for AIDS in four percent of the patients.

According to the report, the number is growing.

“From 1987 to 1988, while there was somewhat of a rise in the number of homosexuals infected in America, there was a twofold rise in the number of heterosexuals infected. It’s one of the fastest growing segments of the population that has AIDS,” said Dr. Davis Recker, an AIDS researcher who has been studying the disease for four years. Recker spoke at NIU in December.

Associated with this increase was a rise in the proportion of cases in women, from 7.1 percent in 1982 to 7.9 percent in 1987.

“Worldwide, in the next 25 months, more women will be diagnosed with AIDS than all the individuals from the past 10 years combined. Right now, AIDS is the fifth leading cause of death in women aged 25 to 49,” Recker said.

“By 1992, it will have become the leading cause of death” among women, Recker said.

The annual number of AIDS cases reported has increased every year since 1981. If the trend continues, it is projected that 73,000 cases will be diagnosed in 1991 alone, the CDC reports.

By 1991, the CDC expects a cumulative total of 270,000 cases, of whom 179,00—or 66 percent—will have died.

Since 1985, nine people have tested positive to AIDS at the DeKalb County Health Department and half of those have died. While it has been almost a decade since the beginning of the AIDS crisis, indications are that little has changed in the sexual habits of NIU students.

“Students still have it in their minds that AIDS is a gay disease. There’s some concern on the part of some people, but overall, people don’t think about it when they’re about to engage in some sexual activity,” said Kathy Hotelling, director of NIU’s Counseling and Student Development Center.

Steve Lux, health educator for Health Enhancement Services, said attitudes among students are changing, and both sexes are more concerned, but “sex is something we find easier to do than talk about.”

According to a recent study published in Psychological Reports, which examined the attitudes of Midwestern undergraduate college students toward AIDS, many feel they have little to worry about.

The study showed they had minimal concern about contracting AIDS from their current or future sexual partners. It also showed their rate of sexual activity had not changed from that of the previous year.

Over two-thirds of the participants said they did not use condoms during their sexual encounters. The authors of the study suggested that the students were underestimating their risk of infection and jeopardizing their health.