World AIDS Day took place on Dec. 1, with new practice guidelines released that same day by the American College of Physicians. The purpose of the new guidelines is to help physicians make decisions on how to better screen for HIV in their practice.

According to a yahoo.com article, the new guidelines allow doctors to “offer initial screening to all patients and should determine the need for repeat screening intervals on a case-by-case basis.” These new guidelines want patients with a higher risk for HIV infection to be tested multiple times compared to patients with an average risk.

Yahoo defines high-risk patients as: Those who have shared or are currently sharing needles; those who have had blood transfusion between 1978 and 1985; those who have had sex with multiple people; those who have a sexual transmitted disease or those who have had unprotected sex with anyone in any of these categories.

I realize that you may not ask the “tough” questions with every person you sleep with, but maybe you should. You are in college, you’re an adult, and it’s your body, so ask the tough questions. If you don’t know the person that you are sleeping with that well, why sleep with that person? Call me old fashioned, and I’m only 22-years-old, but why sleep with someone you can’t trust, or don’t even know?

Protect yourself and be smart. The best way to protect yourself is abstinence or having sex with someone you are having a serious relationship with, but there are plenty of other ways to protect yourself. Use condoms; get tested for HIV and AIDS; educate yourself about HIV and other STDs and talk to the person you are having sex with, and find out their past behaviors.

Student Health Services provides oral HIV testing for $25, and it’s in-house lab work so you’ll find your results the same day.