A
U.S.
study says that gay and bisexual men who use the internet to meet partners
are apparently more likely to engage in risky sex but tend to do so with
people who have the same HIV status.
The Denver Public Health
Department, who conducted the study say that forty-one percent of men
who arranged to have sex with other men through the Internet, reported
having unprotected anal intercourse with their last partner.
According
to data collected from a sexually transmitted disease clinic in Denver in 2003 and
2004, that was comparable with 31 percent of men who met partners in gay
bathhouses, 29 percent who used other public sex venues and 25 percent of
those who met in bars or parties.
The Colorado study also
found that compared to 20 percent of bathhouse patrons, 51 percent of the
men who used the internet to meet had chosen a sex partner with the same
HIV status as themselves.
These
findings, along with two other studies suggesting many HIV-positive gay and
bisexual men are deciding to have sex based on viral load counts, the
amount of HIV detectable in a person's blood, has prompted warnings from
health officials.
The
studies were presented at the 2005 National HIV Prevention Conference in Atlanta on June 15.
Dr.
Ronald Valdiserri, deputy director of HIV, STD and TB prevention programs
at the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC), says that many men who have sex with men
may falsely believe that these strategies will protect them from HIV
infection.
Choosing
sexual partners based on their HIV status or the amount of virus in blood
can possibly reduce the risk of acquiring or transmitting HIV, there are
also dangers in doing so, as many men do not know they have HIV.
Viral
load results even when accurate, can become outdated and, there are no
guarantees that HIV is not present in some body fluids.
The
practice exposes people to other sexually transmitted diseases or puts
those who are HIV-positive at risk of becoming infected with another strain
of the virus, known as a super-infection.
The
Internet users, according to the study, were more likely to have been
diagnosed with gonorrhea.
These
timely warnings came just two days after the CDC reported that more than 1
million Americans were living with HIV at the end of 2003.
The
CDC say that gay and bisexual men made up 45 percent of the estimated
1,039,000 to 1,185,000 people who are HIV-positive, making them the largest
single infected risk group.
AIDS,
has killed about a half million Americans and at least 22 million people
worldwide since 1981.
The
disease destroys the immune system and leaves people vulnerable to
opportunistic infections and cancers, and health experts have been warning
of a possible resurgence of the epidemic.
The
development of antiretroviral drugs eased the onslaught of the virus in the
early 1990s.
Concerns
have been voiced by experts that the increased use of crystal
methamphetamine, a powerful stimulant that can lower inhibitions and lead
people to engage in risky behaviour, has fuelled the resurge.
According
to a survey of more than 19,000 such men by the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center, the number of gay and
bisexual men who had used the illicit drug doubled between 2001 and 2004.
That
increase was greater in those who were HIV-positive.
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