IGNORANCE, despite its exalted status in the popular proverb, is rarely bliss. Indeed, it can have distinctly detrimental consequences. Fully 32 years after the then Department of Health and Social Security launched its “Don’t die of ignorance” campaign against HIV/Aids, it is extraordinary to discover that many of our young people know little about the virus and the condition it can cause.

In an era of sexual enlightenment, they are living in the dark. And, while it may be true that treatment of sufferers is much improved since those early days of fear and horror, it remains the case – as it always must – that prevention is better than cure.

To sum up the statistics provided by HIV Scotland, one-third of secondary pupils do not know how to minimise the risks and 15 per cent know “nothing” about transmission and prevention of the virus. One-third thought HIV could be contracted from toilet seats, while others thought kissing and spitting could be causes.

That the subject can still be shrouded in folklore during an era of advanced technological communication is disturbing. Perhaps the actual routes of transmission of HIV – unprotected vaginal, anal or oral sex; shared hypodermic needles; contaminated blood transfusions; mother to child during pregnancy, delivery or breastfeeding – remain awkward or embarrassing for the squeamish.

But it’s part of growing up to acknowledge such matters. If less than half of pupils attend sexual health lessons, that acknowledgement becomes a little less likely. Sexual health education is not compulsory in Scotland, though – along with parenthood and relationships – it’s supposed to be “an integral part of the curriculum”.

In terms of practicalities, the Scottish Government is conducting a “review of personal and social education”, while a partnership of health boards and local authorities is developing a web-based teaching resource on healthy relationships, including HIV awareness. All of which sounds worthwhile, even if we wonder if use of the internet might better be directed directly at pupils rather than at teachers.

Today’s younger generation have not been subject to anything like the big campaign of the 1980s. Perhaps a renewed advertising project, using the internet rather than the television adverts and leaflets (as in the 1980s), is required.

While all the focus latterly has been on cure and care, which have made the prospects so much more positive for sufferers, arguably we need to bring prevention to the fore once more through new approaches. At any rate, no young person should be leaving school unaware of how to protect themselves from HIV and, indeed, other sexually transmitted infections.

Times change and so perhaps, today, our watchword should be “Don’t live in ignorance”. It very often has consequences a million miles from bliss.