Epidemiology and behaviour

Epidemiology and behaviour features

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  The gay globe

  In the last two years, three internet surveys in Europe, the USA and Asia asked over 200,000 gay men and other men who have sex with men (MSM)...

  From:  HIV treatment update

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  Where next for HIV prevention?

  Gus Cairns finds that UK HIV prevention campaigners and researchers are all in agreement that something has to change. They’re not so certain about where we go...

  From:  HIV treatment update

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  South African AIDS Conference: Special Issue

  The 5th South African AIDS Conference, held from 7-10 June, 2011 in Durban, showcased the recent remarkable achievements of the country’s HIV/AIDS response. Consequently, the conference was...

  From:  HIV & AIDS treatment in practice

Epidemiology and behaviour news from aidsmap

• Higher rates of HIV in US black gay men may be due to smaller choice of partners and more age mixing

  Limited partner choice, wider age gaps between partners, and mistaken beliefs about HIV status in regular partners are all driving the substantially higher rates of HIV in US black gay men relative to other ethnicities, a recent study suggests. ...

  18 May 2013 | Gus Cairns

• More drugs, more alcohol often means more risky sex for HIV-negative gay men

  There is a highly significant relationship between frequency and intensity of drug and alcohol use and risky sex among American HIV-negative gay men, a study published in the online edition of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes shows. ...

  14 May 2013 | Michael Carter

• New HCV combinations could have a big role in prevention, but only if treatment rates increase

  New combinations of hepatitis C drugs could have major public health benefits, a modelling study published in the online edition of Hepatology shows. Scaling-up treatment rates in Edinburgh, Melbourne and Vancouver has the potential to achieve significant reductions in prevalence ...

  11 May 2013 | Michael Carter

• Up to a third of HIV infections in European gay men may have come from another country

  A study (Frentz) that looked at genetic similarities in the HIV from recently diagnosed people in 24 European countries found that among ‘clusters’ of closely related viruses (which indicate networks of transmission), a quarter of people who were ...

  10 May 2013 | Gus Cairns

• A majority of HIV-positive gay men in Dutch survey take their viral load into consideration if having unprotected sex

  About 40% of men who answered a community survey for HIV-positive gay men in the Netherlands said they took their viral load into consideration in deciding whether or not use condoms. This represents about two-thirds of those who actually ...

  29 April 2013 | Gus Cairns

• Consistent decline in partner numbers in US gay men in last decade, but no change in condom use

  Data from two national sex surveys in the United States show that gay and bisexual men (men who have sex with men, MSM) reported significantly fewer sexual partners in the previous year in a survey conducted between 2006 and ...

  25 April 2013 | Gus Cairns

• PrEP doesn't lead to increases in risky sex among gay men

  Taking HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) does not lead to increased levels of sexual risk behaviour among gay men, investigators from the United States report in the online edition of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes. Numbers of sexual ...

  15 April 2013 | Michael Carter

• No increase in sexual risk taking by gay men in England, 2001 to 2008

  Analysis of Gay Men’s Sex Survey data shows that, overall, the proportion of men reporting unprotected anal intercourse (UAI) did not change between the 2001 and 2008 surveys. There was an increase in the number of men with diagnosed ...

  10 April 2013 | Roger Pebody

• Disagreements about agreements – many gay couples lack clarity on sex outside their relationship

  The majority of American gay men in relationships say they establish a ‘sexual agreement’ with their partner, both to minimise HIV risks and to maintain the quality of their relationship, according to research published online ahead of print by ...

  05 April 2013 | Roger Pebody

• Meta-analysis shows the massive global burden of HIV among transgender women

  Almost a fifth of transgender women worldwide are infected with HIV, results of a meta-analysis published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases shows. A total of 39 studies involving over 11,000 transgender women in 15 different countries were included in ...

  27 March 2013 | Michael Carter

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Epidemiology and behaviour news selected from other sources

• Smartphones Partially Responsible For HIV Spike In Philippines, Says Official

  The Philippines was named one of the nine countries with a rising HIV rate this year. One DOH official argues that smartphones and social media are to blame.

  22 May 2013 | Medical Daily

• HIV infection rates rising in Kazakhstan

  Research shows that HIV/AIDS among gay men is far higher than government statistics suggest.

  22 May 2013 | Aljazeera.com

• UNITED STATES: Navajo Confront an Increase in New H.I.V. Infections

  A surge in H.I.V. infections on the Navajo reservation in New Mexico has doctors and public health workers increasingly alarmed that the virus that causes AIDS has resurfaced with renewed intensity in this impoverished region. The challenges of prevention are amplified in a place where sex is still rarely discussed publicly and infection is often hidden from loved ones.

  21 May 2013 | New York Times

• Promiscuous Gay Nerd: Is It Time to Abandon Serosorting?

  Consider the underlying assumption of serosorting: that, for negative guys, choosing to have condomless sex with other negative guys is less risky than having condomless sex with poz guys. In an era of treatment as prevention, at some point doesn’t that assumption become untenable? Especially in cities with low testing rates and high levels of HIV stigma?

  20 May 2013 | BETA blog

• Cambodia on track to eliminate HIV transmission by 2020

  The World Health Organisation says Cambodia is on track to become one of the few countries in the world to successfully reverse its HIV epidemic and may eliminate new infections by 2020. The Southeast Asian nation has reduced its HIV prevalence rate from a 1998 peak of 1.7 percent among people aged 15-49 to 0.7 percent in 2012 across the whole population

  13 May 2013 | Radio Australia

• Little cross-border spread of HIV seen in 26-country European study

  Despite international travel and fluid population movement across Europe, three quarters of clustered new infections in a 26-country study involved people from the same country and another 10% involved people from a neighboring country.

  07 May 2013 | International AIDS Society

• Lack Of Data On Gay Men Impedes HIV Fight In Central Asia

  In recent years, the countries of Central Asia have experienced some of the fastest growing rates of HIV infection in the world. One of the key populations at risk is men who have sex with men (MSM). However, an acute lack of data on the health of that population -- due in large part to intense stigmatization of homosexuality – may be obscuring the region's HIV epidemic.

  07 May 2013 | RadioFreeEurope / RadioLiberty

• Young black Brooklyn males struggling with sexual identify fuel Brooklyn HIV crisis

  A new generation of young Brooklyn black males - many who hide their sexual identify - are worrying doctors who say they are fueling the borough's HIV epidemic.

  25 April 2013 | NY Daily News

• Study shows why HIV risks greater among men under 30

  Young men who have sex with men have more instability in their lives and less access to HIV prevention and treatment than their older counterparts, a new study shows.

  22 April 2013 | The Desert Sun

• San Francisco: A New Phase in the HIV Epidemic Among MSM

  In San Francisco, HIV incidence did not increase between 2004 and 2011 among men who have sex with men, despite ongoing risk behavior.

  16 April 2013 | Journal Watch

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