May 1, 2002

8:51 AM

At Si Tanka Huron University, a school of 400 in South Dakota, as many as 50 people may have been exposed to HIV by having sex with an HIV-positive basketball player or two of the women he slept with, according to today's New York Times.
posted by rcade (22 comments total)

3 people are linked to 50 other sexually? that's a lot of sex.
posted by moz at 8:57 AM on May 1, 2002

The Boston Globe article made it sound like random sex was the campus hobby. Damn guidance counselors never suggested a small, rural school to me.
posted by yerfatma at 9:11 AM on May 1, 2002

It's not mentioned in the article, but perhaps it's time to teach the kids a little something about how to protect themselves whiling having sex. Again while not mentioned in the article, my guess is that the school’s abstinence policy (implied by the small town setting) isn’t working here.
In perfect world this would not happen; kids would not have sex unlit they were mature enough to handle its implications or know to protect themselves. However, this is not a perfect world. Teachers (parents, etc.) should illuminate the darkness, not keep teens in the dark for dogmatic reasons. (Did I just open Pandora’s Box?)
posted by Bag Man at 9:12 AM on May 1, 2002

3 people are linked to 50 other sexually? that's a lot of sex

It is and it isn't. It presumably doesn't mean that they each slept with, say, 15 other people. Say that each of them had two other sexual partners over the past few months, apart from the person who potentially infected them. In order to bring the number of people connected to the original HIV-positive person up to 42, you only need three degrees of separation, ie someone slept with someone who slept with someone who slept with the HIV-positive person.
Like the old AIDS-awareness slogan goes, Next time you go to bed with someone, how many people will you be sleeping with?
posted by different at 9:14 AM on May 1, 2002

That's assuming a 100% infection rate. I don't think HIV is that successful. Unless all those people were into the sorts of extreme sex that result in tearing and blood co-mingling.
posted by five fresh fish at 9:24 AM on May 1, 2002

Mark this one in the journal of unfortunate URLs: the page for this story is 01STUD.html. No need to brag!
posted by hincandenza at 9:32 AM on May 1, 2002

If you're wondering what kind of guy he is, he's "lanky, personable."
posted by davebush at 9:35 AM on May 1, 2002

Again while not mentioned in the article, my guess is that the school’s abstinence policy (implied by the small town setting) isn’t working here.

This is a university, not a high school. They don't have a sex ed curriculum and hence no sex ed agenda. Abstinence only isn't necessarily correlated with small towns, or rural areas, either.

I currently live in South Dakota, and grew up less than an hour from Huron.

This is the first attempted prosecution under SD's law making it a crime akin to attempted murder to knowingly put a sex partner at risk of HIV infection, without informing that partner of the risk. Personally, I support the law. I'm a gay man, HIV-, and I would want the prevailing attitude to be one that encourages disclosure, by just about any means possible. Of course, since I haven't been sexually active for several years, it's not like this is a big issue for me. Nonetheless, I hope this guy gets a stiff sentence, should he be found guilty.

Side note: Huron University has a shaky history. It used to be a good school for teachers and agriculture-related degrees - my mother was a graduate. They've gone through several owners in the last 20 or so years, their credentials have been in jeapordy a few times, and they have a hard time attracting students. All this only makes it worse.
posted by yesster at 9:40 AM on May 1, 2002

This article makes the whole thing sound much seedier. For the love of God, please use condoms people!
posted by eclectic glamazon at 9:46 AM on May 1, 2002

Jesus. Poor kids.

So Nikko has had sex with two women. Four people have tested positive, including Nikko. I wonder who this other person is. Male? Female? I guess they won't be reading The Myth of Heterosexual AIDS around there.

This article says "One of the people tested gave the names of 70 others who were in contact with Briteramos," which is quite vague.
posted by RJ Reynolds at 9:48 AM on May 1, 2002

And let's all revisit Nushawn.
posted by RJ Reynolds at 9:50 AM on May 1, 2002

The infection rate for HIV is actually very low, on the order of 1 in a 1,000 per act of unprotected heterosexual intercourse with an infected partner for women, and much lower for men.

Still, take care of yourselves, gang.
posted by NortonDC at 9:57 AM on May 1, 2002

That's assuming a 100% infection rate. I don't think HIV is that successful.

fivefreshfish, I am assuming that 'may have been exposed to HIV' means that you have had sexual contact with someone who may have HIV, rather than that you have actually contracted the virus. I think that the 50 people referred to are people who, um, may have been exposed to HIV. That is, they slept with someone who slept with someone who is HIV-positive.

You are quite right that many or most of them presumably will not have actually contracted HIV, for various reasons - practising safer sex, or just dumb luck. However, pending the results of the tests, they are all people who 'may have been exposed to HIV'.
posted by different at 10:02 AM on May 1, 2002

Ah. 'k.
posted by five fresh fish at 10:20 AM on May 1, 2002

Hey, wait a second... I'M LANKY! I'M PERSONABLE!!!!
posted by banished at 10:37 AM on May 1, 2002

Hey, wait a second... I don't want HIV
posted by banished at 10:39 AM on May 1, 2002

The last article in the Rapid City Journal (Rapid City, SD) on the matter said that there were only four confirmed infections---the 50 people figure is a broad guesstimate at the number exposed.
posted by nathan_teske at 10:44 AM on May 1, 2002

The criminalization of this sort of behavior happened a long time ago in Oregon: US - Oregon Appeals Court Upholds Conviction For Attempted Murder by HIV Transmission. "We're a small school," said Brad Smith, the interim chancellor. "It's family. If something happens to one of us, it happens to all of us." That was the point, dillrod.
posted by Mack Twain at 11:34 AM on May 1, 2002

Mark this one in the journal of unfortunate URLs: the page for this story is 01STUD.html. No need to brag!

Obviously, this stands for Si Tanka University, Dakota....
posted by geneablogy at 8:17 PM on May 1, 2002

(or STUDent, geneablogy)

In my college I did know a girl who brought a new guy back to the dorm just about every night. It was a running joke that we didn't need to get to know their names. She was fairly pretty, too, and not particularly dumb; she just had, um, issues.
posted by dhartung at 11:12 PM on May 1, 2002

You mean she kept their issue? That's weird.
posted by NortonDC at 5:48 AM on May 2, 2002

Hmm, that was not exactly the shining moment I had hoped my MetaFilter kibicomment would be.
posted by NortonDC at 6:23 AM on May 2, 2002