Younger gays infected with HIV underestimated seriousness of disease

It doesn't affect me.

That was the perspective that Victor, a 33-year-old D.C. resident, had about HIV before he learned in 2005 that he was infected with the disease.

Victor, who requested his full name be withheld, said before he contracted HIV he thought the disease was "something that happened to someone else."

"It's just one of those sort of off-the-wall crazy things that is never really going to happen to me," Victor said. "It's just another possibility along with being killed in a building by a plane."

Damian, a 34-year-old D.C. resident who also requested his full name be withheld, similarly thought he would never be infected with HIV. He discovered he was HIV positive in 2003.

"I didn't think I was invincible, but I really didn't think it would happen to me," he said.

The two are among a growing number of young gay men in the United States contracting the virus. More @ DC Blade