A Maine expert on AIDS and HIV urged Westbrook students Friday to regard AIDS as “a death sentence” and to take precautions to avoid contracting the incurable disease.

Dr. Owen Pickus, guest speaker at an assembly sponsored by Westbrook Regional Vocational Center in observance of World AIDS Day, has been treating AIDS patients since the 1980s.

“We’re 20 years away for a cure,” Pickus told the students.

Pickus said all people are at risk and urged students to use precaution. He said a teenager contracting AIDs now could expect to live only to 40 to 45 years of age.

“You don’t want a death sentence hanging over your head,” he said.

Pickus, an HIV specialist in Portland, and Norman Sprague, director of the culinary arts department at the vocational center, cautioned high school students about the dangers of AIDs. “It’s a sad and dreadful disease,” Sprague said.

Sprague said the assembly was aimed at raising the awareness of AIDs in Maine, where some 1,500 people suffering from the virus.

Brandon McPhail, a senior, and Aaron Toth, a sophomore, who are in the public safety program at the vocational center, posted the state and national flags at the beginning of the observance. Public safety teacher Dave Roubo sang the national anthem.

Sprague said students in the DECA Club and Skills USA made individual red, lapel ribbons for speakers, guests and students. Sawyer’s Flower Shop donated ribbons for a centerpiece on the stage in the Westbrook High School auditorium.

Cutline ( Owen Pickus)