Editorial – let’s talk about sex
The overwhelming majority of people with HIV in the UK become infected with the virus because of unprotected sex, and most HIV-positive individuals remain sexually active after their diagnosis. The news coverage on aidsmap last week illustrated how wide-ranging, and how stigmatised, the sexual activity of HIV-positive people is. Once again, the criminalisation of the reckless transmission of HIV in England and Wales featured prominently in the news, and the increasing intrusion of the criminal law into sexual health and HIV has prompted the UK’s Department of Health to launch a consultation exercise on the confidentiality of HIV and sexual health records.
In an attempt to avoid putting others at risk of HIV, some HIV-positive individuals choose to have sex with other HIV-positive people, particularly if they wish to have unprotected sex (often called “serosorting”), but new evidence shows that some gay men in the UK who wish to serosort, are, in fact, having unprotected sex with men who are either HIV-negative or of unknown HIV status, potentially involving the risk of HIV transmission – and even the involvement of the criminal law.
Unprotected sex between HIV-positive men has been associated with the sexual transmission of hepatitis C virus, a very serious infection and now a major cause of illness and death in people with HIV. But some new evidence suggests that fisting, and not unprotected anal sex, may be the key activity for the sexual transmission of hepatitis C. The doctors who conducted this study said that it has been difficult to determine which sexual activities are associated with hepatitis C transmission partly because people are reluctant to talk about “taboo” behaviour – I think that doubts about the confidentiality of sexual health records, and the risk of criminal prosecution for accidental transmission of HIV, mean that it’s going to be even harder for people with HIV to talk to their doctors about sexual behaviour which is all too often stigmatised.
In this edition of HIV Weekly there’s a first-hand account by an HIV-positive man about the reality of his sex life and his fears about criminal prosecution.
Next week...
Aidsmap.com coverage from AIDS 2006 - the Sixteenth International AIDS Conference, Toronto, August 13-18.
Aidsmap.com will be publishing comprehensive online coverage of the largest AIDS conference ever to take place from Sunday August 13th onwards.
Toronto will be an important conference for treatment news, including:
- Lopinavir monotherapy.
- The first results of treatment with a new drug class, integrase inhibitors, in patients new to treatment.
- Further findings from the major study of structured treatment interruption, SMART.
- Head to head comparison of efavirenz and lopinavir in first-line therapy.
- The first fixed dose triple combination for children.
Our coverage will include daily news and analysis, and subscribers to HIV Weekly will receive a daily update during the conference, highlighting the key stories from the event.
News
HIV and the law: Gay man sentenced to 40 months in jail for recklessly infecting his partner with HIV.
Confidentiality: UK Department of Health launches consultation exercise on the confidentiality of HIV and sexual health records.
Sexual beahaviour: Some HIV-positive men who are seeking to “serosort” may, in fact, be putting others at risk of HIV.
Hepatitis C: Fisting is the key activity for sexual transmission of hepatitis C.
Side-effects: AZT (zidovudine, Retrovir) and possibly other drugs from the same class of antiretrovirals found to have a link with heart disease.