Shocking data gathered shows a steep rise in HIV cases amongst American Men. This news is a source of constant fear faced by many Federal Health Officials .Worrying that the HIV cases may be increasing to an epidemic proportion, experts say that the reason for this increase in cases may be due to unprotected sex enjoyed by gay men in America .
CDC fears HIV
The results further highlight that gay men of the Netherlands, Australia, Canada, Britain, and France, are also showing the same trend and is ending up as a great source of worry to the health officials, spaced out all over the world.
In the survey done in 2011, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or CDC, saw that unprotected anal sex was two times more among men who had no idea that they may be HIV positive. Going in for a HIV test even if it is a single time, proves that the gay men who have opted out for it are careful and take fewer risks though the decision has nothing to do with negativity or positivity of the test. The latest survey does shock us, as one third of the men who had been questioned in the interview had not undergone HIV testing, since the last one year.
Talking about the fears of having unprotected sex, a worried Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, director of the disease centers, states “unprotected anal intercourse is in a league of its own as far as risk is concerned.”
Sero-negative status
The experts are trying to analyze the reason for the sudden upsurge in unprotected sex and Frieden concludes that the gay men scrutinize their partners for a “H.I.V. seronegative” status. The gay men had a tendency to have sex with men who are clear and uninfected by HIV, or those who claim to be , or those who assure they are.
But there is another side to the story states Frieden who spoke about sero-sorting “The problem with sero-sorting is that it’s really easy to get it wrong. When one-third of men aren’t even tested in the last year and a tenth of those who thought they were negative were actually positive, you don’t want to risk your life on a guess,” he stated.
Dealing with HIV
Another reason for being casual about it according to Dr. Jonathan Mermin, the disease centers’ director of H.I.V. prevention and Dr. Frieden, is that the men believe that in case they are tested positive, they can manage their HIV status by consuming antiretroviral drugs for life.
They are also casual about it because they have never been faced with a known person dying of AIDS. They are aware of the fact that the people on antiretroviral therapy very rarely transmit the disease not realizing that not everyone tested positive consumed the medications advised daily.
A researcher at the H.I.V. Center of the New York State Psychiatric Institute and Columbia University, Alex Carballo-Diéguez, has been carefully studying behavior of gay men since a number of years and states that the younger generation is less hassled by HIV and confirmed “H.I.V. has become a chronic disease, and everyone knows some behaviors are bad for you, like smoking and trans fats. But in the moment of excitement, they’re going to do what they enjoy.”
The HIV infection is on a high among black men who are gay though they favor the use of condoms as compared to their fair brothers. But it’s time to do something about this!
Another reason for unprotected sex, may be the shaky economy has led to unemployment amongst youth leading to risky behavior in youngsters. The best way is to educate the men, to go for HIV testing once, every 3-6 months, by explaining them the risk involved.
