Young Asian Men at Fault for Rapid Spread of HIV

Photo courtesy of gay.com

Source: Associated Press, Feburary 20, 2009

The AIDS virus is spreading rapidly among gay and bisexual men in Asia as younger people shun condoms and authorities fail to increase awareness of the disease, health officials said Friday.

The epidemic will worsen dramatically in coming years unless there is better education and stronger political will to combat the disease, warned Massimo Ghidinelli, the World Health Organization's regional adviser on HIV/AIDS ...

Asia is believed to have the world's largest number of men who have sex with other men, with a preliminary estimate of 10 million, according to WHO.

My comment: Young men are more susceptible to the AIDS virus because they often see sex as "playtime," one without any consequences. Such circumstances are further reinforced by first, the absence of any unwanted pregnancies, and two, society's equation of masculinity with aggressive sexuality. Both forces shape the youth mindset, which in turn, are harbingers of a sexual health tragedy.

While describing the figure as "extraordinary high," Ghidinelli said it still appeared to be conservative because of the stigmatization of male-to-male sex.

WHO said fragmentary information from the region indicated a rapid spread of HIV among gay and bisexual men, but that full data weren't available ...

Ghidinelli said low condom use among younger men in male-to-male relationships was fueling the transmission of HIV.

"Younger men engaging in sex with men are entering into a sexual arena without the same level of awareness and without taking the same level of protection that the older generation was taking," Ghidinelli told a news conference ...

My comments: Young gay men, regardless of race, class, or geographical origins, are in fact, at a greater risk of being infected by the AIDS virus due to two factors. First, they have this false sense of security that is shaped by the realization that unlike their straight peers, they will never have to face the consequences of a woman's pregnancy. Second, young gay men, like their straight peers, are part of this larger society's equation of masculinity with aggressive sexuality. The overall tone of gay porn is of that. Romantic sexuality is rarely depicted, even in soft gay porn or R-rated films. With such palpable media messages assaulting the young, impressionable mindset, what else can happen but hyper-sexualization of the penis, one unadorned by rubbers?

Blinding Trust Leads to AIDS Infections

Image courtesy of www.chinadaily.com

Source: www.efluxmedia.com, February 19, 2009

AIDS is just killing China. HIV became the top killer among infectious diseases in China last year when it sent 6,897 people to their graves, Xinhua News Agency reported.

According to data from the Chinese Health Ministry, the number of HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) infections doubled to 264,302 from 135,630 in 2005. The huge increase might be due to the fact that the state authorities refused until last year to acknowledge that HIV infections are a serious threat to China’s population.

However, things have changed and now state authorities began addressing the issue. State authorities promised anonymous testing and free testing for the poor and also vowed to fight the discrimination of the HIV positive people.

Nevertheless, Beijing authorities may have shifted their policy towards AIDS, but most Chinese are still reluctant to HIV testing and the number of people infected in China is actually estimated to be much higher than authorities said. According to a government and UNAIDS reported there may be about 700,000 Chinese infected with HIV.

Not only China faces this problem. The whole eastern Asia seems to record higher infection rates when it comes to HIV. In big cities such as Bangkok, the number of gay and bisexual men who are HIV positive grew 30% according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The main cause of infection is unprotected sex between gay men or MSM as researchers call it. The problem seems to be the fact the perception that gay men have about using a condom when having sex and not the lack of condoms.

“There’s this perception of gay men and MSM throughout the region that if you use a condom you don’t trust your partner,” said Edmund Settle, a HIV-AIDS policy specialist with the United Nations Development Program.

In China, nearly 5% of gay or bisexual men have HIV, while just 0,1% of all adults are HIV positive, according to Wu Zungyou, head of China’s national center for AIDS control and prevention.

My comment: The perception that using a condom seems to suggest a lack of trust of one's partner arises from a deeper, misleading sense that if someone says he or she is HIV negative, then indeed that is true. Even in the US, that attitude is still prevailing, one that has led to tragic infections. HIV education campaigns rarely talk about these intangibles, those unspoken fears. It is time that more concentrated efforts are made to discuss these self-deceptive behaviors.

AIDS: Renewing the Promise of a Cure

Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. government and the richest charity are offering bounties to a new wave of scientists to wipe out HIV, the virus that causes AIDS and is one of the world’s biggest killers.

Frustrated by one failure after another, the U.S. is asking scientists to outline a major program to find a cure for HIV, while the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle is offering grants of $100,000 for researchers working on ways to drive the virus from patients’ bodies for good. Scientists are responding with new methods to stamp HIV from human cells and tissues where traces of it can hide for years, evading treatment.

The above excerpt is from a longer article in Bloomberg.com (Click here). Apparently, scientists are frustrated with the lack of progress in finding a cure. So far, all experimental vaccines have failed to spread the disease, which these days, strikes down nearly 3 million patients per year.

I applaud these renewed efforts, but until we do find a vaccine, the US government, and all of us, common citizens included, must step up efforts in AIDS education. There is a squeamishness in the schools to discuss safe sex education. This squeamishness is regrettable, even deadly.

And some quarters in the gay community are still playing fire with their lives, barebacking being one of those means. After the heavy toll of the 1980s and early 1990s, there has been a more laissez faire attitude toward sexual intimacy in the gay community. The advent of more advanced drugs for HIV patients has led to a wrongheaded attitude that AIDS is just a minor pest.

Some of this risky behavior is sometimes rooted in self-hatred, which in turn, arises from rejection by the larger society. So greater acceptance from society can go some way to shifting the goalpost of the fight against AIDS. But no doubt, gays themselves must also share the responsibility of knowing what is right and what is wrong. Perhaps it is time for a renewed alarm.

Lighting Up, Burning Down: Gays & Smoking

Photo courtesy of http://wearingacapemakesyouasuperhero.blogspot.com/

"It's been over a year since I kicked some smoking butt. I remember having no desire to smoke before I started. I often hung out with people that smoked either at bars or just socializing. I finally accepted their offer to have a drag. One drag turned into half of a cigarette. That single stick turned into several bummed cigarettes a day and eventually a purchased pack. My habit was in full acceleration." This little anecdotal account, and the quote below, come from a longer article on cancers and gay men. It explains why gay men are more susceptible to cancers, the lung one included.

The same article also pinpoints the reason why gay men are more susceptible to lung cancer and other related health problems: "Smoke-filled bars and clubs are common hang outs for some gay men. For this reason, according to the American Cancer Society, gay men are more likely to smoke or be exposed to smoke. A recent gay.com article on gay smoking cites 36 percent of LGBT adults are smokers, compared with 25 percent of all adults. Smoking accelerates the progression of AIDS and increases the risk of lung cancer. HIV also accelerates smoking-induced emphysema." Not only is this an American phenomenon, but in the United Kingdom, an estimated 40 percent of gays smoke (click here for an article).

I see all the time friends at gay bars light up cigarettes without a care in the world. Coupled with the free flowing alcohol (which actually you have to pay for at exorbitant rates), smoking, and cruising seem synonymous with the bar culture. Perhaps for some gays, these behaviors enable them to ignore a difficult reality outside this glitzy fantasy of fashionable, pretty boys; adrenalin rushing music, and materialism galore. Then again, drinking and smoking lowers inhibitions, and allows them to keep on cruising, and cruising.

Ironically, for a gay culture that seemingly is obsessed with sex (I say seemingly, because not all of us are!), smoking actually creates hormonal imbalances that decrease libido. Not to mention smoking also causes yellow teeth, gum disease, and bad breath. And of course, smoking cuts the airflow to the skin, leaving it grey and dull. It is akin to choking you to death, one cigarette at a time.

So now that you know smoking makes you less "sexy," will you stop smoking? After all, we are well past the 1930s, when even doctors are exploited to promote cigarette smoking. Thank god, we are past that now (see the ad below from that decade).

"Gag Rule", Abortion , AIDS, and Gay Men

President Obama's lifting of the "global gag rule" on this past Friday was heralded as a step in the right direction by organizations in the forefront of offering reproductive and family planning services. By lifting this ban on U.S. funding for organizations that provide abortions and any abortion-related services, women in underdeveloped countries no longer have to suffer unwanted pregnancies or worse still, suffer risky abortions performed in medically unacceptable conditions. But what is often less noted is that this gag rule for far too long have also denied local family planning clinics, when they refuse to sign the gag rule, the ability to offer HIV/AIDS prevention education and other related family planning services. In so doing, their critical work, in countries already plagued by poor medical delivery services, on behalf of AIDS patients, which includes bisexual men and gay men, is also impacted adversely. Furthermore, and this has had a devastating impact on contraceptive education, the gag rule effectively prevented non-governmental organization from accessing much needed supplies of condoms and other educational materials needed in the fight against AIDS. All of us should welcome the lifting of this gag rule due its past harsh implications.

Readthis article for more analysis of the impact of this gag rule on women in Third World countries. It makes no direct mention of gay men, however.

Read this article for a quick overview of the fallout from the previous Bush "gag rule."