Men who have sex with men (MSM) who are diagnosed with HIV shortly after contracting the virus are typically engaging in greater sexual risk taking around that time than those who test positive for the virus later in the course of their infection, aidsmap reports. The implication of this finding is that targeting testing programs to identify acute, or very recent, HIV infections could help slow the virus’s spread among MSM.

Publishing their findings in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, researchers analyzed sexual risk taking among 912 MSM newly diagnosed with HIV between 2011 and 2015 at the Los Angeles LGBT Center.

A total of 145 of the men (16 percent) were diagnosed with acute HIV infection, defined as a negative HIV antibody test and a positive nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT). (Antibodies typically take a few weeks to develop after HIV infection, but the nucleic acid amplification test can detect the presence of the virus earlier than that. A negative antibody and positive NAAT test result means someone was likely infected within the prior few weeks.) The remaining men were diagnosed after the acute infection phase.

The men diagnosed with acute infection reported an average of 4.2 and a median of 2 sexual partners during the previous month, compared with a reported average of 2.4 and a median of 4 partners among the other men. The acutely infected men reported an average of 9.9 partners and a median of 4 partners during the previous three months, compared with an average of 5.3 and a median 2 partners among the other men.

During the three months before their diagnosis, 65 percent of the men diagnosed with acute infection and 56 percent of the non-acutely infected men reported condomless receptive anal intercourse. The respective rates of those reporting insertive condomless anal intercourse were 55 percent and 50 percent.

To read the study abstract, click here.

To read the aidsmap article, click here.