Fear and Trembling in Sweden

Ok, this doesn't really have anything to do with Sweden. It just sounded good in the title.

I've been visiting the HIV/AIDS chat room over on Yahoo! (Yeah, the same Yahoo! with the Crazy Woman who believes in ghosts). There are a ton of sadly underinformed people running around in absolute terror of HIV. They think that every little bump or red mark is a sign of having HIV when it simply isn't so. They're filled with such abject fear that every little thing that might go wrong--a cough, an itchy spot--is a sign that they're infected with HIV.

Why has HIV education gotten to this point? Yes, HIV infection is an awful disease but what went wrong so that everybody is terrified that a little drop of spit on their knee is going to give them HIV?

It truly saddens me that so many people who are at risk for HIV don't know the basics of transmission, infection, and progression of the infection. But I don't know what to do about it. More accurate information in High School health classes? I don't know; I haven't been in a high school health class for nearly 20 years. More billboards? Probably wouldn't work. I just don't know....