Scary article: HIV drugs and gay men

[MisterLove]

According to the World Health Organisation, all gay men, sick or not, should start taking HIV medication:


http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/...02688.html


I find this very disturbing.

What's the story here and why the alarm from the WHO? Is the infection increasing among gay men despite all the information and recent breakthroughs? Are condoms not safe enough?

Moreover this seems to imply that gay men are indeed a risk group and 'dangerous'. Does this mean we should not be allowed to donate blood, after all?!!

[Aike]

The original news report by WHO does not speak about any increased rates of HIV/AIDS but is actually a bit more positive on the matter: "By the end of 2013, around 13 million people were taking antiretroviral therapy (ART), with 11.7 million of these people living in low- and middle-income countries. This has led to a 20% drop in HIV-related deaths between 2009 and 2012." The core of the report is really that the most vulnerable populations are also the most likely to be left out from treatment.

Although, of course, the fact that there has been a drop in HIV-related deaths does not mean that there couldn't be an increase in the rate of infections. In fact, what sounded alarming to me was this: "Gottfried Hirnschall, who heads WHO’s HIV department, said that they were seeing an “exploding epidemic” when it came to HIV rates in the gay community around the world. He said this was largely down to a more relaxed attitude to HIV, which were the result of new drugs that made it possible to live with the disease." Well, personally, I wouldn't really let down my guard because of the availability of better treatment...

[Iceblink]

What is scary is some of the misleading information that could be believed in reading this article.

The headline: "World Health Organisation recommends that all gay men should take antiretroviral medicine to halt HIV epidemic." No, that is not quite what WHO recommended. The recommendation is that all men that are having sex with other men should take this drug. You can be homosexual, and for that matter heterosexual or bisexual, and not be sexual active. The article also never uses the word "bisexual" and that is something irresponsible on the writer and website's part.

A couple paragraphs from this article:

In a report published on Friday, the WHO made “strong recommendations” that all men who have sex with men should seriously consider taking antiretroviral medicine “as an additional method of preventing the HIV infection from spreading”, even if they haven’t got the virus themselves.
The report says that in addition to other forms of protection like condoms and regular testing, increased use of antiretroviral drugs in the gay community could have a significant impact in stopping the spread of HIV and could prevent a million new infections in the next ten years, according to the WHO.

More irresponsibility due to some poor use of wording here. From this it could be interpreted that new HIV cases are increasing despite condom use, something you yourself OP seem to suggest. New HIV cases are increasing among gay men, and sadly it seems to be happening disproportionately in younger gay men, because of the lack of use of condoms in so may men having sex with other other men. The use of condoms greatly reduces the risk of HIV infection. An additional method of protection does not mean the drugs must be used in conjunction with condoms. In people not using condoms, the risk of transmission will be lowered with use of this drug, something that is very difficult to understand from this article. It has always been known that condoms are not 100% effective, but the risk is greatly lowered and even before the recommendation of the use of these drugs, if condoms were being used much more than what they are now, the new cases of HIV transmission would be very much lower than what they are now. The misleading wording in this article is actually quite dangerous as it could lead some people to think, "well condoms don't work so why even use them?" An additional method of prevention means it will reduce transmission in not only those who are already using condoms, but also those who do not, although it needs to be made clear that the use of a condom is still recommended. This could be made even more effective if doctors had this discussion of this recommendation with not only every man that is having sex with other men, but also every male patient old enough to have sex to make sure the message reaches every person that might not have told the doctor he is having sex with other men.

I am disturbed that new HIV infections are increasing among gay men, but I'm not disturbed by the recommendation of WHO because more methods of preventing and reducing transmission of HIV is a good thing. In all the years since we've known of this disease, we know people are not going to stop having sex and we know some people are not going to always have safe sex, so we need to deal with reducing the transmission within the reality of the world we live in and it includes both education with hope methods of prevention reaches everyone and is practiced by everyone, and it includes new methods of preventing transmission.

SHORT TLDR VERSION OF EVERYTHING I SAID: Nowhere in the article does it make clear that the cause of increased rates of HIV infection among gay men is caused by not practicing safe sex and using condoms and not making that clear is very dangerous.

[NightOwl]

They can say all they want. I would not be taking any medication if I was not well! Nor could I be forced, thankfully

[Cuddly]

I heard the HIV spread was increasing. Particularly in straight individuals, because it's considered a gay-man disease the use of condoms is neglected by straight individuals. Why would you? All you use prevention for is pregnancy, right??.. Right??.

[Bowyn Aerrow]

I would like to say that we who have maintained a sex partner score of less than ten are many in the LGBT community.

But I am not prone to tell blunt lies, I tell blunt truths.

The majority of gay males tend to fuck like bunnies - if it moves you have sex with it.

Promiscuity, and this lack of safe and sane sexual practices has lead to an increase of HIV amongst the youth. Which really makes me mad considering all the fucking condoms I passed out along with awareness lectures to get the damn crises under control.


To be painfully honest about this. I feel that the worst possible thing that could have happened is come up with a treatment option instead of letting the virus kill in its slow, debilitating, humiliating fashion.

While we gays were shivering in fear about catching 'IT' we did our very best to wear condoms and do the right things. As soon as viable treatments came out, the next generation of gays just said 'what the fuck' and decided to go back to pre-AIDS day life style choices.

So I disagree with WHO and CDC. The option here is not forcing everyone to take the cocktail, no the option that will work is to ban the cocktail and let the disease do its thing and let the horror of witnessing ones friends and family die from that horrific disease teach the all important lessons that kids now days are missing out on.

Yes by all means seek out a cure.... just stop treating it with these therapies and let it be the killer it is and let the fear of death enforce condom wearing and safe sex.

WHO and CDC have, once again I fear, got this all wrong.


Good thing went into ministry and not virology, the world would be a far different (and much emptier) place had I studied virology..... :biggrin: