It's World AIDS Day today. That escaped the attention of 24-year-old engineering student William Babb of Portland, who says that AIDS, in general, isn't really on the minds of most young guys.

"Everyone knows that most guys in their 20s are morons and don't want to use condoms because of whatever contrived reason they make up," Babb says.

This kind of mentality, say public health officials, is contributing to a growing number of HIV infections among young people nationwide. In 2006, more than one-third of new infections occurred among people under 30, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

And, while the majority of patients continue to be diagnosed in their 30s and 40s, many are believed to have contracted the virus -- most often through sex -- years earlier.

"We know the virus can lay dormant for up to 10 years," says Jim Markiewicz, Director of the HIV, STD and Viral Hepatitis program for the state. There are more than 1,300 people diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in Maine, and for many of them, he says, the virus quickly morphed into full-blown AIDS.

"Probably about 45 percent of the new diagnoses that we see, you know within a year's time, they're getting an AIDS diagnosis," Markiewicz says. "So what that tells us is that they were exposed and contracted the virus at an early age -- probably in their early 20s for some folks."

This is troubling to AIDS prevention advocates because the 20-somethings of the past were more aware about HIV and AIDS than the 20-somethings of today. The Kaiser Family Foundation found that the percentage of 18 to 29-year-olds worried about becoming infected with HIV declined from 30 percent in 1997 to just 17 percent today.

"For me and people younger than me, I wonder if they understand what HIV is," says Andrew Bossie. Bossie is 26, and Executive Director of the Maine AIDS Alliance. He says he was sheltered from the images of dying AIDS patients. By the time he was a teenager, AZT and other drugs had been introduced and were extending people's lives.

"It's 25 years later and here's HIV, and people are living longer and it's being called a chronic illness," Bossie says. "And while there's incredible advances, the fact of the matter is, is people are still getting infected with what is a preventable disease, people are still getting very, very sick, either from the disease itself or from the side effects of medication that they're taking, and people are still dying."

In Maine, the percentage of new HIV diagnoses among people under 30 is much smaller than it is nationally. In the last couple years, the two diagnoses involved an infant infected by the mother; the other was a teenager.

But says Bossie, Maine tends to lag the rest of the country when it comes to disease trends. "We might see something on the national level happen in terms of HIV trends that doesn't apply to us until later, so we have a really unique opportunity in this state to actually posture ourselves appropriately beforehand."

HIV prevention advocates say that the best way to reach young people is through other young people.

"Kids are going to have sex and everyone knows that and I don't see how they expect us not to," says 18-year-old Barbara Hunter, a recent graduate of Cony High School in Augusta. Hunter was at a World AIDS Day event at the State House in Augusta.

She says she was taught a lot about abstinence, but she says learning about contraception is more important. She says she always uses protection. "You're sleeping with every person that that person slept with and every person that they've slept with, so you could be sleeping with like 200 people, sleeping with one person."

Hunter's not the only young person worried about contracting HIV. William Babb, the engineering student from Portland, says that his friends have a devil-may-care attitude about unprotected sex, but he does not. "I generally use protection and if I'm with a single person, which is usually what it is, after a while, we both get tested."

The CDC recommends getting tested for HIV at least once a year if you are sexually active with more than one partner or if your partner has had sex with other people since your last HIV test. IV drug use is also a major risk factor.

Advocates say testing is crucial to stopping the spread of the disease. In Maine, it's estimated that roughly 400 people have HIV and don't know it.