(07-14-2014 07:55 AM)Crebman Wrote: (07-14-2014 07:40 AM)EverRespect Wrote: Quote:HIV infections are rising among gay men in many parts of the world, the World Health Organization warned Friday, urging all men who have sex with men to take antiretroviral drugs to prevent infection.
"We are seeing exploding epidemics," warned Gottfried Hirnschall, who heads WHO's HIV department.
Infection rates are rising again among men who have sex with men -- the group at the epicentre of AIDS pandemic when it first emerged 33 years ago, he told reporters in Geneva.
While images of skeletal men dying of AIDS in the 1980s pushed the world to act, a younger generation that has grown up among new treatments that make it possible to live with HIV are less focused on the disease, he suggested.
Today, this group is 19 times more likely than the general population to be infected by HIV, Hirnschall said.
In Bangkok for instance, the incidence of HIV among men who have sex with men stands at 5.7 percent, compared to less than 1.0 percent for the overall population, he said.
http://www.afp.com/en/news/who-warns-hiv...tive-drugs
Now you went and stirred up the hornets nest. The "gay brigade" will be here soon to try and brow beat you into believing that gay males and HIV have no correlations with each other.
No. Its a HUGE problem. Young Gay people wont wear condoms. Absolutely refuse to wear them.
And while there are other factors, external to the Gay/Bisexual community (this has nothing to do with Lesbians) that contribute to this issue, its largely an issue that was created within our community.
Here's where we are at.
1) No one likes sex with condoms, straight or Gay. Smart Gay people know that you have to wear them.
2) The advocates of unprotected sex have, until recently (thank God there are some voices of sanity standing up to these barebacking morons), had the space all to themselves. They use words like "no stigma" and "slut shaming" to try to silence anyone who says "condomless sex is always the wrong answer, especially in casual relationships". Have all the sex you want. Just wear a frigging condom is all I'm saying.
3) There is a wonderful drug out there that can prevent HIV infection from happening. I'm glad it exists. But it isn't cheap, it has side effects, and it provides no protection against other STD's or from odd mutations of HIV that might come out in the future. It would be great if this drug was used properly by those that fit certain risk profiles (e.g., partner who is HIV positive, drug users, etc.) but largely that drug (Truvada) is used as a replacement for condoms. The whole point of the drug is to use them in addition to condoms. That isn't happening.
4) There is a problem with drug use in our community. These people aren't responsible enough to maintain a drug regimine like PrEP. Our police and prosecutors really don't focus on clearing our communities of the people dealing poison in our community.
5) The 'no stigma' crowd is getting millions of dollars in funding from the drug companies (Gilead) in order to convince people to go on their drug. But little of that money is going towards trying convince people that you still need to wear condoms and you need to be off Tina.
6) So we now have any number of non-HIV STD's racing thru the community like its' 1977, and even worse, the HIV infection rate is going up - not down because people aren't bothering to get on the medicine before they throw away the condoms.
Many people, such as myself, refuse to take Truvada. My doctor agrees. I see no point of going on that drug and subjecting my liver and kidneys to risk if I'm going to wear a condom anyway. Its largely a drug for drug users and people who are too irresponsible to wear a condom. If my doctor tells me to go on it, I'll do so.
The response of far too many to this issue hasn't been "lets tell people to stop barebacking and using drugs", but just throw up our hands and tell everyone to go on Truvada and condemn those that say that Truvada is a party drug (which it is - in most cases). More "no stigma" BS.
Of course, many Gay people know that whatever some straight doctors group says, we know what is really going on in our community. We're on Grindr. We're on scruff. We go out to the bars. We go to Palm Springs. We see what people are actually doing. We know that the advocates of PrEP tend to be those that excuse barebacking or Tina usage. So the end result is this. Less than 10,000 Gay men are on Truvada. The WHO can scream all day long as far as I care. My doctor and I both think its a bad idea to put every sexually active Gay man on a drug if there's little benefit (and there isn't for people who wear condoms)
To be clear, the LGBT advocates you see that are advocating for marriage equality, etc., aren't usually the problems here (although Andrew Sullivan is one of the bad actors). Its a subset of the community. But its not a small subset.
Truvada, if used properly, is a potential solution to HIV. But if there's no reduction in barebacking or drug use, then the impact is going to be MORE infections. And that's what we're seeing.
The good news is that people are finally telling the 'no stigma' crowd, Gilead, bareback advocates, to STFU.
The WHO said, Gay men should consider going on the drug. Sure, I've considered it with my doctor....and my answer is "no". And its possible Gilead is 'helping' the WHO with its recommendations. I'd be real careful about rushing out to buy Gilead stock as a result of this. You're not going to see nearly as many people go on Truvada, at least initially, as you might think.
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WHO warns HIV 'exploding' among gay men
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