Prof pairs with MTV to combat HIV pandemic

Valentine's Day is about more than candy hearts and roses -- it's also about knowing how to use a condom, according to one Nursing professor.

Tomorrow is National Condom Awareness Day, and Loretta Jemmott -- who studies AIDS prevention -- is working to get young people involved nationwide.

Jemmott served as a judge for the Hear Me Project writing contest, which asked authors between the ages of 14 and 22 to submit essays about being "positively negative" about HIV and AIDS.

"College students -- that's the population that's really in need" Jemmott said. "What's needed on campus now is education programs around sex."

For the project, Jemmott worked alongside celebrities like Scarlett Johanssen, Morgan Freeman and Spike Lee.

The contest was designed to cultivate student awareness of the AIDS pandemic, and the winner's name will be broadcast on MTV News tommorrow.

According to Beth Watchner, a spokeswoman for Select Media -- which is sponsoring the contest -- about 700 people from six countries entered the contest. Last year's winner had his story made into a movie that is slated to be shown as part of HIV/AIDS education programs.

"The stories we got this year were so deep and wonderfully written that you can visualize it on the screen," Jemmott said.

She was selected as a judge because of her groundbreaking research on HIV prevention.

Out of the seven HIV reduction programs approved by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, three were designed by Jemmott. They center around sex education programs in schools throughout the country.

She has spent the last 15 years working with her husband, Communication professor John Jemmott, who studies health media. The pair have focused on health crises among black and Latino youths.

Jemmott described her research as taking time "to understand why people engage in risky sexual behavior and what would facilitate young people to be safe."

And according to Jemmott, AIDS in America needs attention.

"The MTV thing took it up another notch," she said. "It gets people to talk about HIV issues. [MTV] knows they've got a following and ... that the following needs that information."

According to a 2003 report from the Centers for Disease Control, blacks accounted for 48 percent of AIDS cases in the United States -- a fact Jemmott said inspires her to focus her research on minority youths.

Robert Carter, associate director of the Penn African-American Resource Center, said that HIV prevention is one of his primary goals.

"Any time people are bringing awareness to something that is as dire and devastating as AIDS has been to our society -- it's a great thing," he said.

And the essay contest may be an effective educational tool in and of itself, according to John Jemmott.

"Youth who write the essay are given the opportunity to reflect on how different social circumstances and behavior can either increase or decrease the risk for HIV," he said.

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