November 28, 2007

HIV Among MSM Up 13 Percent

HIV/AIDS cases among men who have sex with men have increased by 13 percent in the last four years, according to a new Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) article (prnewswire.com, 11/27).

In response to the article, which examined HIV among MSM in the United States and other Western countries, AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) has renewed its “call for effective and sustained prevention efforts and a fast tracking of routine HIV testing nationwide,” the organization said in a press release.

The JAMA article, “The Reemerging HIV/AIDS Epidemic in Men Who Have Sex With Men,” says that some reasons for the upward trend are feelings that the disease isn’t deadly anymore, substance abuse and a lack of awareness of people’s HIV status.

“Global numbers seem to be going down. U.S. numbers are rising rapidly in certain populations as this report shows," said Michael Weinstein, president of AHF. "It's time for us to stop guessing and radically scale up testing so we can have accurate numbers to ensure an effective response to the epidemic. We need to make screening for HIV for all populations a routine part of medical care and normalize the process of HIV prevention, testing and treatment.

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Rayford Kytle, Washington, DC, 2007-11-30 11:22:23
This same issue of JAMA included a piece by three leading prevention experts calling for "the end of stigma toward MSM, which may mitigate the internalization of homophobia leading to sexual risk behavior. This need is particularly critical within racial and ethnic minority MSM communities... Political leadership is also needed to advocate for legal domestic partnerships as a way to to promote stable, longer-term relationships." We should demand this from all our political leaders.