Where We Are Now: 2000
Since 2000, additional factors have begun contribute to the the global spread of HIV. Heroin addiction in Asia has been on the rise, which brought with it dirty needles and the risk of new infections. India suffered with over 2 million diagnoses alone, in spite of the government’s refusal to admit the epidemic had adversely affected the nation.
The WHO released its comprehensive report examining HIV and AIDS in all of its 25-year history in 2010. This report had good news for developed nations: by 2008, the U.S. domestic HIV infection rate was considered effectively stable, and has remained so to this day. The report also demonstrated that while insistent public awareness campaigns about safe sex and other methods of transmission had slowed the rate of HIV infection in developed countries, there was much to be done elsewhere.
Global Education and Aid Efforts
Under President Bush, the U.S. committed funds to help African countries, but the funds were mismanaged and the spread of HIV continued unabated. Of the 4.1 million cases in sub-Saharan Africa then, only 1% received the available drugs. This led to the WHO’s declaration of the failure to treat the 6 million AIDS patients living in developing nations as a global public health emergency.
HIV Denialism Disrupts Aid
By the time Mbeki was recalled from the presidency in 2008 and one year before the FDA approved its 100th HIV/AIDs drug, an estimated 16.9% of South Africans aged 15-49 were HIV positive.
To Prevent Hiv Infection Couples Try Testing Together
In other words, particular versions of the virus, with particular DNA sequences, are most likely to pass from a woman to a man. This reduces the chance an infection occurs during sex.
The restriction is less when women have sex with an HIV-positive man. And, most likely, reduced even further when men have sex with men. So the chance of an infection increases in both situations.
As HIV replicates inside a person, mutations are introduced into its DNA. This results in a large number of different HIV versions swarming about the body each with its own genetic code.
But when HIV is transmitted through sex, usually only a single version of the virus establishes a long-term infection. So the process is almost like a filter, letting only certain viruses through.
This made scientists wonder: Is there something special about the HIV versions making it through the filter?
To figure this out, a team at Microsoft Research and Emory University analyzed data from a decades-long study on HIV transmission between “discordant” heterosexual couples in Zambia. These are couples in which one person is HIV-positive and the other is HIV-negative.
Lack Of Access To Education
Studies have shown that increasing educational achievement among women and girls is linked to better SRH outcomes, including delayed childbearing, safer births and safer abortions, lower rates of sexually transmitted infections and unintended pregnancies.35
Women with more education tend to marry later, bear children later and exercise greater control over their fertility. 36, DeNeve, JW et al. Length of secondary schooling and risk of HIV infection in Botswana: evidence from a natural experiment, Lancet Glob Health, Volume 3, No.8, p.e470e477 It has also been shown to be linked to reduced risk of partner violence, another factor that makes women and girls vulnerable to HIV.37 Despite this, in the least developed countries in the world, 60% of girls do not attend secondary school.38
Research has shown a direct correlation between girls educational attainment and HIV risk: uneducated girls are twice as likely to acquire HIV as those who have attended school.39 In Botswana, UNAIDS reports that every additional year of school a girl completes reduces her risk of acquiring HIV by 11.6%.40
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Antiretroviral Treatment For Adolescent Girls And Young Women
A lack of youth-friendly HIV treatment, support and care services prevents many adolescent girls and young women from accessing ART. Studies from Southern Africa have shown how loss to follow up a year after enrolling on ART is higher among young people compared to both adults and children.8283
Young women face specific difficulties in adhering to treatment. Stigma and discrimination, especially surrounding adolescent girls sexuality, means many struggle to test for HIV or disclose their status if positive, while issues relating to travel and waiting times at clinics also create barriers.84
How Is Hiv Spread
In the United States, HIV is spread mainly by:
- Having sex with someone who has HIV. In general:
- Anal sex is the highest-risk sexual behavior. Receptive anal sex is riskier than insertive anal sex .
- Vaginal sex is the second highest-risk sexual behavior.
- Having many sex partners or having other STDs can increase the chances of getting HIV through sex.
Less commonly, HIV may be spread by:
- Oral sex. The chances of getting HIV through oral sex are much less than from anal or vaginal sex. Learn more about oral sex and HIV risk.
Learn more ways HIV is transmitted
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What Factors Put Men Who Have Sex With Men At Risk Of Hiv
The fact that HIV prevalence among men who have sex with men is so high in many countries means that members of this group have an increased chance of being exposed to the virus. This is mainly due to having unprotected sex.10 However, there are other factors that put men who have sex with men at heightened risk of HIV.
Syphilis Rates Are Up In Gay And Bisexual Men Here’s Why
Syphilis an illness thats been around for centuries, afflicting monarchs, artists and regular folk alike is on the rise in the U.S. Rates of the sexually transmitted disease are climbing especially quickly among gay and bisexual men, a new government report shows. The increase may have something to do with more testing and better options for treating another condition which often goes hand in hand, said one expert.
In 2015, gay and bisexual men made up more than 60 percent of early syphilis cases, the new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found.
Researchers analyzed data from 44 states and found that the national rate of early stage syphilis in gay and bisexual men was an estimated 309 cases per 100,000. That figure is 106 times higher than the rate among heterosexual men , and 168 times higher than in women, according to the CDCs Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Gay and bisexual men living in the South had the highest rates, with North Carolina, Mississippi and Louisiana reporting more cases of the disease. In North Carolina, for example, there were 748 cases per 100,000 gay and bisexual men, while Alaska had the fewest cases, only 73 for every 100,000.
You may not know you have it for years. Most people diagnosed with syphilis have no symptoms at all, said Grant.
Syphilis is curable with a shot of penicillin.
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Current Usefulness And Usage Of The Term Gay Bowel Syndrome
As noted above, the maladies associated with gay bowel syndrome contribute to the acquisition of AIDS.
According to the Centers for Disease Control :
| Gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men represent approximately 2% of the United States population, yet are the population most severely affected by HIV. In 2010, young MSM accounted for 72% of new HIV infections among all persons aged 13 to 24, and 30% of new infections among all MSM. At the end of 2010, an estimated 489,121 persons living with an HIV diagnosis in the United States were MSM or MSM-IDU. |
In 2012, an abstract for a The Brazilian Journal of Infectious Diseases articled entitled Clinical manifestations of primary syphilis in homosexual men indicated, “At the beginning of a new millennium, syphilis incidence has been increasing worldwide, occurring primarily among men who have sex with men .” In the United States, 75 percent of the syphilis cases between 2011 and 2012 were among MSM. In 2012, gonorrhea and syphilis spreading among homosexual men engaging in sexual activity with one another increased in prevalence in the United States. Also, according to WebMD, “Proctitis is increasingly more common in homosexual men…”
The Aids Epidemics Lasting Impact On Gay Men
19 Feb 2018
Turning points in gay history
In the 20th century, the gay community saw such watershed moments as the targeting of gay people by the psychiatric enterprise and the McCarthy era witch-hunts, the birth of gay liberation, lesbian feminism, and queer culture, homosexualitys and demedicalisation, the legalisation of gay marriage, and the overturning of bans on gay people serving in the military.
As with all watersheds, these events impacts were filtered through such characteristics as gender, ethnicity, class, and age at the time of the event. For gay men and women born before 1930, whom I interviewed in 1995 and who came of age in an era of political, medical, and scientific oppression, the emergence of gay liberation was the most significant event shaping their experience of gay life.
Peak of the AIDS epidemic
While these older gay people were aged 50-70 in 1980, when HIV / AIDS emerged in the west, gay male baby boomers were aged 34-16.
For them, the high number of AIDS deaths at the epidemics peak shaped their personal, social, psychological, and community lives, during the epidemic, throughout their life course, and into later years. AIDS killed 324,029 men and women in the USA between 1987 and 1998 .
AIDS killed 324,029 men and women in the USA between 1987 and 1998.
Silence = Death: Direct action in response to the AIDS Crisis
Devastating numbers of AIDS deaths in major cities
Impact on survivors of the AIDS epidemic
Ongoing impact of HIV/AIDS
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Implications For Hiv Transmission And Prevention
Anal sex is a common practice among men who have sex with men, heterosexual men and women, and transgender individuals and is a known risk factor for HIV infection and transmission.11,12,13,14 In a recent nationally representative survey of almost 6,000 men and women in the United States , approximately 20% of women between the ages of 18 to 39 reported engaging in anal sex in the past year, as did approximately 25% of men between the ages of 25 to 49.15
HIV transmission
Rectal fluid has implications for HIV transmission through anal sex when the HIV-negative person is the insertive partner . Research show that this type of anal sex can carry a significant risk of HIV transmission. In fact, the average risk of HIV infection through a single act of condomless insertive anal sex with an HIV-positive partner is slightly higher than through vaginal sex but much lower than if the HIV-negative person takes the receptive role during anal sex.16,17
Rectal fluid undoubtedly contributes to the risk of HIV transmission through anal sex where the insertive partner is HIV negative. We know that for HIV transmission to be possible, a fluid that contains HIV must come into contact with specific parts of the body that are vulnerable to HIV infection. If an HIV-negative person has insertive anal sex with an HIV-positive partner, rectal fluid containing HIV can come into contact with the urethra and/or the penis foreskin. Both the urethra and foreskin are vulnerable to HIV infection.
S Hiv/aids: Why Was Aids Called The Gay Plague
The early years of AIDS were a time of great fear and anxiety for gay men around the world.* The bulk of this was generated by the mysterious and lethal nature of this new condition. But there was another element that exacerbated the situation the homophobia whipped up by irresponsible media. Central to this was the sustained use of the terms gay plague and gay bug when referring to AIDS.
Yet AIDS was never a plague and the notion that it was somehow a consequence of a persons sexual orientation was discounted just over a year after the disease was first identified. Nonetheless, media usage of the term increased rather than decreased in the face of this evidence.
A Plague?
The Oxford English dictionary defines a plague as either:
A contagious bacterial disease characterized by fever and delirium, typically with the formation of buboes
A contagious disease that spreads rapidly and kills many people.
Even in the earliest days of its manifestation, it was clear that the disease was not spread by the type of casual contact with which plagues are spread. On , the US Centers for Disease Control explicitly identified all major routes of transmission as well as ruling out the possibility of transmission through casual contact:
Nonetheless, this did not stop headlines such as The StarsKiss of Death or The SunsIts spreading like wildfire. . *
A Gay Disease?
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Young Gay And Bisexual Men Are More Likely To Engage In Risky Sexual Practices
The two most basic steps to preventing an HIV infection, beyond abstinence, are to limit the number of sexual partners and use a condom. But research shows young gay men are much less likely to practice safe sex.
The CDC survey of high school students found that sexually active male students who have sex with men are both less likely to use a condom and more likely to have had sex with four or more partners during their lifetime than male students who had sex with only women.
As the chart above shows, these trends are dramatic: young men who had sex with men were roughly 50 percent more likely to report having four or more partners than young men who only had sex with women, and nearly twice as likely to report not using a condom during their last sexual encounter.
Use A Barrier Method During Sex
Condoms and other barrier methods can protect against HIV and other sexually transmitted infections .
If you have HIV or another STI, getting treatment and using a condom or other barrier method every time you have sex can reduce the risk of transmission.
If you dont have an STI, you can protect yourself from acquiring an STI by using a condom or other barrier method every time you have sex.
Also, its important to buy the right size condom for you and to use it properly.
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Hiv Infection Rates In The Us
The HIV virus affects the human immune system and, if left untreated can eventually lead to Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome .
The CDC reported that in 2009 that male-to-male sex accounted for 61% of all new HIV infections in the U.S. and that those who had a history of recreational drug injection accounted for an additional 3% of new infections. Among the approximately 784,701 people living with an HIV diagnosis, 396,810 were MSM. About 48% of MSM living with an HIV diagnosis were white, 30% were black, and 19% were Hispanic or Latino. Although the majority of MSM are white, non-whites accounted for 54% of new infections HIV related MSM infections in 2008.
In 2010 the CDC reported that MSM represented approximately 4 percent of the male population in the United States but male-to-male sex accounted for 78 percent of new HIV infections among men and 63 percent of all new infections. Men overall accounted for 76% of all adults and adolescents living with HIV infection at the end of 2010 in the United States, and 80% of the estimated 47,500 new HIV infections. 69% of men living with HIV were gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men. 39% of new HIV infections in US men were in blacks, 35% were in whites, and 22% were in Hispanics/Latinos. The rate of estimated new HIV infections among black men was 103.6six and a half times that of white men and more than twice the rate among Hispanic/Latino men as of 2010.
Gay Bowel Syndrome Shigellosis Proctitis And Hiv Infection
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention indicates:
|
In 2017, the Center for Disease Research and Policy and the University of Minnesota reported in an article entitled Shigella in gay men growing more antibiotic resistant:
In February of 2007 the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases reported in a article entitled Another Perfect Storm: Shigella, Men Who Have Sex with Men, and HIV:
| In the mid-1970s, outbreaks of Shigella infection among adults in New York and San Francisco raised the possibility that Shigella species may be sexually transmitted, with most infections occurring in men who have sex with men . Since these early observations, Shigella infection appears to be more frequent among MSM than among other adult populations… |
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