Discrimination And Homophobia As Causes Of Hiv
Despite increased visibility, acceptance and recent sociopolitical advances, gay and bisexual men continue to live in a society that privileges heterosexuality while denigrating nonheterosexual relationships, behaviors and identities . As a result, our population continues to face stigma rarely encountered by our heterosexual counterparts. Oppressive social structures and inequalities affecting gay and bisexual men have been implicated in perpetuating not only the HIV epidemic but also rates of anal cancer, Hepatitis B, human papillomavirus and lymphogranulma vernreum infections, syphilis, gonorrhea and Hepatitis C .
These structural conditions, which take the form of discrimination and homophobia , are further compounded by racism and economic disparities for gay and bisexual men of color. Exposure to and experiences of homophobia have been implicated in substance abuse, risky sexual behaviors, negative body image, suicide attempts, increased stress and limited social support among gay and bisexual men . Moreover, experiences with homophobia have been shown to interfere with the ability of gay and bisexual men to establish and maintain longterm same-sex relationships, which protect against HIV acquisition . The experiences of homophobia may exert their effects on sexual risk taking indirectly by exacerbating mental health burden .
The way she talks about gay people its, its not right. Like shell be watching a movie and be like oh my god that… faggot.
Estimates Number Of New Hiv Infections
The Agency estimates that 2,242 new infections occurred in Canada in 2018. This estimate is a slight increase from the estimate for 2016 .
The resulting estimated incidence rate in Canada for 2018 was 6.0 per 100,000 population which is a slight increase from the estimate for 2016 .
Figure 8. HIV incidence: Estimated annual number of new HIV infections in Canada
This graph shows the point estimates of new HIV infections by year with each associated plausible ranges for point estimates. The vertical axis shows the estimated number of new HIV infections per year, with the low and high ranges. The horizontal axis shows the calendar years.
| Year |
|---|
| gbMSM-PWID | 2.7% |
Among the estimated new infections in 2018, an estimated 1,109 were among gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men , representing just under half of all new HIV infections in 2018, despite representing approximately 3-4% of the Canadian adult male population. Although the gbMSM population continues to be over-represented in new HIV infections in Canada, the proportion of new infections among this population has decreased compared to 2016. .
Three hundred and twelve of the estimated new infections in 2018 were among people who inject drugs , accounting for 13.9% of new infections. The proportion of new infections attributed to heterosexuals increased slightly to 34.0% from 31.7% in 2016.
Key Points: Hiv Diagnoses
Gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men b are the population most affected by HIV in the U.S.:
- MSM accounted for 69% of new HIV diagnoses in the United States.c
- From 2015 through 2019 in the United States and 6 dependent areas, Black/African American MSM accounted for more than 36% and White MSM accounted for more than 30% of HIV diagnoses among MSM annually.
- In 2019, Black/African American MSM accounted for 26% of new HIV diagnoses and 37.9% of diagnoses among all MSM.
- In 2019, Hispanic/Latinod MSM made up 22% of new HIV diagnoses and 32.5% of diagnosis among all MSM.
The number of HIV diagnoses decreased among MSM overall, but trends varied by race/ethnicity. From 2015 through 2019:
- Among MSM aged 1324 years, HIV diagnoses decreased or were stable among all racial/ethnic groups.
- HIV diagnoses increased among American Indian/Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian/other Pacific Islander MSM, ages 24 and older.
Transgender people accounted for approximately 2% of new HIV diagnoses in 2019.
- From 2015 through 2019 in the United States and 6 dependent areas, the number of diagnoses of HIV infection for transgender adults and adolescents increased.
- In 2019, among transgender adults and adolescents, the largest percentage of diagnoses of HIV infections was for transgender male-to-female people.
Blacks/African Americans and Hispanics/Latinx continue to be severely and disproportionately affected by HIV:
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What Factors Put Gay And Bisexual Men At Risk For Hiv Infection
The high percentage of gay and bisexual men who are living with HIV means that, as a group, they have a greater risk of being exposed to HIV.
Other factors may also put gay and bisexual men at risk for HIV infection:
- Anal sex. Most gay and bisexual men get HIV from having anal sex without using condoms or without taking medicines to prevent or treat HIV. Anal sex is the riskiest type of sex for getting HIV or passing it on to others .
- Homophobia, stigma, and discrimination. Negative attitudes about homosexuality may discourage gay and bisexual men from getting tested for HIV and finding health care to prevent and treat HIV.
Hiv Among People Who Acquire Hiv Through Heterosexual Sex
How many people living with HIV in Canada acquired HIV through heterosexual sex?
According to national HIV estimates, 20,750 people living with HIV in Canada acquired HIV through heterosexual sex in 2018. This represents 33.4% of all people with HIV in Canada.
In 2016, the Public Health Agency of Canada separated heterosexual transmission into two categories those born in an HIV-endemic country and those born in a non HIV-endemic country . According to the Public Health Agency of Canada This separation is no longer considered appropriate, for reasons of increasing data incompleteness. The Public Health Agency of Canada is working with communities and with provinces and territories to find ways to better reflect the HIV situation in these communities.
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Why Isn’t There An Aids Vaccine Yet
Overall, the estimated lifetime risk of being diagnosed with HIV was 1.05 percent, meaning that approximately 3 million Americans will be diagnosed with HIV in their lifetime, CDC said in a statement.
Among males the estimated risk was one in 62, and among females it was one in 221. At every age, males had a higher estimated lifetime risk than females.
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In many other parts of the world the sexually transmitted infection hits young women the hardest. HIV is also spread in blood, from mothers to their babies and in shared needles.
African-Americans are at highest risk in the U.S. One in 19 American black men will be infected with HIV over a lifetime and one in 46 black women will be. And when someone’s black and gay, the risk skyrockets.
“At current rates, 1 in 2 African American men who have sex with men and 1 in 4 Hispanic MSM will be diagnosed with HIV in their lifetime, compared with 1 in 11 white MSM,” CDC said.
States where risk is greatest include Maryland, where one 1 in 49 people will become infected, Georgia, with a one in 51 HIV infection rate, Florida , and Louisiana . The highest lifetime risk was in Washington D.C. , an urban district, CDC said.
Researchers reported Monday that actor Charlie Sheen’s admission he was HIV positive had sparked strong interest in HIV prevention.
Maggie Fox is a senior writer for NBC News and TODAY, covering health policy, science, medical treatments and disease.
Estimated Number Of People Living With Hiv
The Agency estimates that approximately 62,050 people were living with HIV at the end of 2018 . This estimate represents a 3% increase from the estimated 58,291 at the end of 2016 .
The estimated prevalence rate in Canada at the end of 2018 was 167 per 100,000 population .
Figure 10. HIV Prevalence: Estimated number of people living with HIV in Canada
This graph shows estimated number of people living with HIV by year. The vertical axis shows point estimates for number of people living with HIV, along with the associated low estimate and high estimate. The horizontal axis shows the calendar years.
| Year | |
|---|---|
| 62,050 | 70,500 |
Of the estimated 62,050 people living with HIV in Canada at the end of 2018:
- Nearly half were among gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men. .
- 14.0% were people who inject drugs, and 33.4% were heterosexuals.
- About one in four PLHIV was female and this proportion has been consistent over the past 6 years.
- One in ten was Indigenous. This proportion remained stable compared to the 2016 estimates.
Figure 11. Proportion of people living with HIV, by key population, Canada, 2018
This pie chart shows the estimated percentage of people living with HIV by key population in 2018.
| Key population |
|---|
|
|
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Canada’s Progress On Meeting The 90
In Canada at the end of 2018, an estimated 62, 050 people were living with HIV . Among those living with HIV, an estimated 87% were diagnosed. Of those diagnosed, 85% were estimated to be on treatment and Canada has achieved the third 90 target with an estimated 94% of persons on treatment having a suppressed viral load .
Canada’s 2018 90-90-90 estimates lie within the range reported by other developed countries such as the United States of America, Germany, Australia, and Finland.
Figure 2. Estimated number and percentage of persons living with HIV, diagnosed, on treatment, and virally suppressed in Canada at the end of 2018 .
This graph shows the estimated number of persons in Canada at the end of 2018 who were living with HIV, diagnosed, on treatment, and virally supressed. The horizontal axis shows the four components that were estimated . The vertical axis shows the estimated number of persons, with the low and high ranges associated with each component.
This graph also shows the point estimate and plausible range associated with each of the three 90-90-90 targets. The first target is the percent of persons living with HIV who are diagnosed. The second target is the percent of persons diagnosed who are on treatment. The third target is the percent of persons on treatment who are virally suppressed.
| Estimate |
|---|
| 43,540 47,840 | 42,240 44,070 |
Hiv In The Gay And Bisexual Population
In the now historic document, which recently reached its 30th anniversary, the CDC reported five cases of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia in young gay men who otherwise should have been healthy. I first became aware of this phenomenon as I sat on the beach reading The New York Times the summer before my freshman year at Columbia University. With bewilderment and fear, I read Robert Altmans account of doctors in New York and California have diagnosed among homosexual men 41 cases of a rare and often rapidly fatal form of cancer. In the following years, I witnessed the eruption of the disease, which in its early years was given the name GRID because of its omnipresence in the gay population .
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Gay Or Bisexual Black Men Have 50 Percent Risk Of Hiv
The average American has just a 1 percent risk of ever being infected with the AIDS virus, but gay and bisexual black men have a 50 percent risk, according to new federal data.
A quarter of Latino gay and bisexual men will be infected over their lifetimes, the new analysis from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds.
And by region, the South, from Texas to Florida, has a higher rate of HIV infection than the rest of the country.
Gay and bisexual men continue to be most affected by HIV in the U.S. At current rates, one in six men who have sex with men will be diagnosed with HIV in their lifetime, making them 79 times more likely than heterosexual men to be diagnosed with HIV in their lifetimes, the CDC team led by Kristen Hess reported.
People who inject drugs are also at increased risk.
The report, released at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Boston, is the first to take a look at any given persons lifetime risk of becoming infected with the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS.
Hiv Testing And Counselling In Nigeria
In 2016, 34% of adults living with HIV were aware of their status.65 Across the country testing rates are low: only 15.1% of people between the ages of 15-49 had tested in the last 12 months and knew their results.66 Nigeria aims to reach the UNAIDS target, with 90% of people living with HIV knowing their status by 2021.67
Surveys have also shown that only 60.4% of women and 70.8% of men knew where they could go to be tested for HIV.68
There are a number of reasons why more people are not testing for HIV in Nigeria. These include supply problems with testing kits and logistic issues getting further supplies. There is also a common belief that HTC centres are where HIV-positive people go to access care, rather than them being testing centres for those who don’t know their status.69
A push on the number of sites providing HTC services has resulted in a huge increase, from around 1,000 in 2010 to more than 8,000 in 2014.70 However, this number is woefully short of the estimated 23,600 sites needed to provide universal coverage.
Targets set in the most recent National Strategic Framework commit to 60% of the general population and 100% of key populations and children of mothers living with HIV to have access to HIV testing services. The plan also hopes to integrate screening for other co-infections into HIV testing and counselling services.71
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How Gender Discrimination And Violence Affect Hiv Risk For Lesbians And Bisexual Women
Many bisexual and lesbian women are put at risk for HIV because of their gender. Gender-based discrimination and abuse extend to many fields of life, including in the medical field and in sexual relationships, two areas that can potentially impact a persons health status.
The 2010 National Intimate Partner Violence and Sexual Violence survey found that 44% of lesbian women and 61% of bisexual women experience intimate partner violencewhich is more common among people living with HIVat some point in their lives. This is compared to 26% of gay men and 37% of bisexual men experiencing intimate partner violence. LGBTQ youth are also much more likely to experience this than their heterosexual and cisgender counterparts.
Bisexual women are between 1.8 and 2.6 times more likely than heterosexual women to experience intimate partner violence.
Both men and women contribute to rates of intimate partner physical and sexual violence among lesbians and bisexual women. The CDC found that 89.5% of bisexual women reported only male perpetrators for instances of intimate partner physical violence, rape, and stalking, while a third of lesbian women who have experienced these forms of violence from intimate partners have had one or more male perpetrators.
New Hiv Diagnoses In The Us And Dependent Areas By Race/ethnicity 2019
* Black refers to people having origins in any of the Black racial groups of Africa. African American is a term often used for people of African descent with ancestry in North America. Hispanic/Latino people can be of any race.
HIV diagnoses are not evenly distributed regionally in the US and dependent areas.
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Misinformation Spread By Activists
To show how out of touch the mainstream media is with reality, Newsweek Magazine, which has featured AIDS on its cover no fewer than twenty times, laid the blame for the AIDS epidemic at the feet of homophobia and religious leaders steeped in moralistic doctrine who have suppressed honest conversation about how to stop it.
We really must ask was it priests and preachers who encouraged men to go out and have sex with hundreds of anonymous partners? Did they order homosexuals to grossly abuse drugs and alcohol so that their judgment was impaired or destroyed? Did the preachers command them to fanatically oppose any and all AIDS prevention measures?
Or is it the media that is complicit in so many deaths, because it refuses to back time-tested public health measures, and instead coddles, promotes and excuses everything the special rights movement does?
In perhaps the most extreme statement of self-excusal, Harry Hay, founder of the first homosexual organization in the United States , accused conservatives of developing and spreading the AIDS virus. Hay claimed, I share with many people the secret, sneaking sensation that, on one level or another, it may have been introduced by reckless Republican reactionaries of the stripe of Ronald Reagan. Not Reagan himself hes too stupid.4
Illustration of the HIV virus
What Should I Do If I Think Im At Risk For Hiv
If you think youre at risk for getting HIV, or that you might already have HIV, get tested and learn about the effective HIV prevention and treatment options available today.
Testing is the only way to know for sure if you have HIV. Find out whether testing is recommended for you.
Many HIV tests are now quick, free, and painless. Ask your health care provider for an HIV test or use the HIV Services Locator to find a testing site near you. You can also buy an FDA-approved home testing kit at a pharmacy or online.
Knowing your HIV status gives you powerful information to help you take steps to keep you and your partner healthy:
- If you test positive, you can start HIV treatment to stay healthy and prevent transmitting HIV to others.
- If you test negative, you can use HIV prevention tools to reduce your risk of getting HIV in the future.
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