Safer sex

Safer sex features

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  Uncomfortable news on lubes for anal sex

  Commercially available sexual lubricants may increase people’s susceptibility to sexually transmitted infection (STIs), US scientists reported recently. A study found that people who consistently used shop-bought ‘lubes’ for...

  From:HIV treatment update

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  Safer sex in the treatment era

  There is mounting evidence that reducing viral load through HIV treatment may be one of the most effective ways of stopping onward transmission of HIV. But how...

  From:HIV treatment update

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  Are lubricants safe?

  The ‘lubes’ used most often in sex may actually make HIV transmission more likely. Gus Cairns explores some unnerving new findings from the 2010 International Microbicides Conference. ...

  From:HIV treatment update

Safer sex in your own words

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  The sex police

  I met Amy through a friend – a friend who knew my HIV status. We got on really well and she asked if I wanted...

  From:In your own words

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  My hero!

  Sex. It’s messy, fraught with all sorts of psychological problems and yes, it’s obviously what got me into this whole predicament in the first place....

  From:In your own words

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  Preventing mother-to-child transmission

  I found out about my HIV status when I was 16 weeks pregnant. After I had an HIV test, I had counselling with the midwife....

  From:In your own words

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  Grateful? I don't think so

  “You must be so grateful that your partner agreed to stay with you despite the fact that you have, you know, AIDS,” said a particularly...

  From:In your own words

Safer sex news from aidsmap

• Douching does not seem to increase STI risk

  Neither rectal douching nor vaginal washing appears to be as significantly associated with sexually transmitted infections or other microbial conditions that increase the risk of HIV, as had been feared, the International Microbicides Conference heard yesterday. In the case of ...

  18 April 2012 | Gus Cairns

• Serosorting does help prevent HIV – up to a point

  A meta-analysis of HIV-negative gay men’s sexual behaviour and HIV incidence rate in four HIV prevention studies, presented earlier this month at the 19th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI), has found that attempting to ‘serosort’ by restricting unprotected ...

  19 March 2012 | Gus Cairns

• Australian gay men cautious about PrEP; most in need are the most interested

  Only just over one in four Australian gay men in a recent scientific survey described themselves as ‘willing’ to use pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) against HIV. The others, about two-thirds of the sample, were largely neutral about PrEP; only 3.4% ...

  17 February 2012 | Gus Cairns

• Serodiscordant relationships for Africans in the UK often marked by uncertainty and disempowerment

  African people in the UK who are involved in a serodiscordant relationship (where one person has HIV and the other does not) have a wide range of experiences, according to a new study from Sigma Research. Nonetheless, two recurrent ...

  25 November 2011 | Roger Pebody

• Reduced susceptibility to first-line drug causes change in UK gonorrhoea prescribing practice

  UK Prescribing guidance for the treatment of gonorrhoea needs to change because of increasing prevalence of bacteria with reduced susceptibility to the first-line antibiotic cefixime, the Health Protection Agency (HPA) has announced.  Some 17% of gonorrhoea samples tested ...

  11 October 2011 | Michael Carter

• The safety spectrum: gay men use many ways to moderate their sexual risk

  The vast majority of gay men, HIV-positive and negative, make some effort to moderate their risk of transmitting or acquiring HIV, a large Australian study finds. Dr Limin Mao of the University of New South Wales in Australia, speaking at the ...

  18 September 2011 | Gus Cairns

• Motivational interviewing, widely used counselling technique, may not work well for sexual behaviour change

  A meta-analysis of sexual risk behaviour reduction using the counselling technique known as motivational interviewing has found little evidence of efficacy, the Tenth AIDS Impact conference heard this week. Researcher Rigmor Berg, of the Norwegian Knowledge Centre for Health Services in Oslo, ...

  16 September 2011 | Gus Cairns

• The spirit is willing, but... sex in the HIV-positive over-50s

  Although the average age of the HIV-positive population is increasing, in both richer and poorer countries, and though sex between older people has often been cited as a possible risk factor for HIV, there has been surprisingly little investigation ...

  16 September 2011 | Gus Cairns

• Viral load increasingly features in safer-sex discussion and decisions by HIV-positive gay men and their partners

  A Dutch study presented at the Tenth AIDS Impact conference this week showed that HIV-positive gay men are increasingly taking viral load into account when it comes to deciding whether to use a condom during sex. Another study from the USA ...

  15 September 2011 | Gus Cairns

• Unprotected sex eight times more common in serious relationships than casual ones, US gay youth study finds

  The strongest single predictor of not using condoms in anal sex in a group of young US gay men was that the relationship was regarded as ‘serious’, a study has found. Unprotected sex was eight times more likely in ...

  26 August 2011 | Gus Cairns

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Safer sex news selected from other sources

• A discourse on HIV disclosure

  Despite the increase in HIV testing, and both primary and secondary prevention campaigns, there is a relative lack of discourse on disclosure of HIV status and condom negotiation among all the men we encounter in our studies. The discourse that does take place often produces confusing and even contradictory stories about status disclosure.

  05 April 2012 | Chelsea Now

• KENYA: Better training needed for counsellors of HIV-discordant couples

  The Kenyan government has issued guidelines on counselling for HIV-discordant couples, but many counsellors in smaller, rural health centres remain untrained.

  05 April 2012 | IRIN Plus News

• Understanding Risk: A Conversation

  Editor Bob Leahy interviews CATIE’s James Wilton about the tricky topic of communicating risk in the age of undetectable viral load.

  22 March 2012 | PositiveLite

• Zimbabwe: Women's Latest Bargaining Tool

  "WOMEN think that when you're married, you don't have to worry about HIV. They think it is a safe haven,"said Beauty Nyamwanza of the National Aids Council.

  24 August 2011 | AllAfrica

• Chinese parents worry about sex education booklet

  The direct description of sexual intercourse in China's first sex education textbook for primary school students in Beijing has triggered a wave of parental concern.

  24 August 2011 | China Daily

• Sexual and Reproductive Health for young HIV positive adolescents

  This manual gives guidance and direction to healthcare workers who recognise that sexual and reproductive health is a critical component of adolescent service provision.

  23 August 2011 | Anova Health Institute

• Five Things About HIV They're Not Telling You

  Gay men are still forced to piece together the latest facts about HIV, largely due to the reticence of public health messages -- or just plain homophobia.

  12 January 2011 | The Body

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