Risky sex increasing among gay men in London

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Anonymous questionnaires completed annually over a five-year period by more than 8000 gay men in London show increasing levels of risk behavior—and a high level of undiagnosed HIV infection.

These two factors create “the potential for onward transmission of HIV, and increasing prevalence is a major public health concern,” researchers warn in the medical journal Sexually Transmitted Infections.

The proportion of men having unprotected sex rose significantly each year from 30 percent in 1996 to 42 percent in 2000, Dr. Julie Dodds from Royal Free and University College Medical School in London and colleagues report.

In the year 2000, one hundred thirty-two of 1206 saliva samples (10.9 percent) tested positive for HIV, and 43 of these infections had not been diagnosed previously.

When asked, 83 percent of the men said they knew their HIV status, but 4 percent were wrong.

Roughly 50 percent of men with diagnosed or undiagnosed HIV infection reported unprotected sex in the preceding year.

In fact, men who tested positive for HIV were significantly more likely to report engaging in unprotected sex with five or more partners, and to report a sexually transmitted infection in the previous year, than HIV-negative men.

The results from these surveys are a “public health concern, in an era when HIV prevalence, antiretroviral resistance, and sexually transmitted infection incidence are increasing,” the investigators conclude.

SOURCE: Sexually Transmitted Infections, June 2004. 

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