The number of people becoming infected with the AIDS virus in USA was about 50,000 a year between 2006 and 2009, according to data compiled by government epidemiologists. This apparent statistical 'plateau' is apparently hiding the disturbing fac that there was been a rise of 12% per year of cases among black gay men- from 4,400 in 2006 - 6,500 in 2009. Moreover; this was the only group of gay men where a significant increase of cases was recorded.
I read an article that suggested research has shown that young gay black males don't engage in riskier sex than their white counterparts, but that fewer of them know they're infected in the first place so they're spreading the virus more widely. This level of ignorance is sad and dangerous. A 20 something told me last in Newcastle year that as long as he didn't "shag" anyone over 30 (I WASN'T offering btw!) he would be safe from HIV!!!!!!!! I remember my own invincible youth, when a visit the the clap clinic severely clipped my erm wings - but the great thing about safer sex was that check-ups became like routine 50,000 mile services rather than causing the fear and dread of memories of hormone-crazed encounters surfaced along with a worrying itch.
The availability of effective treatments has lulled some young people here at least into not worrying much about HIV infection. I'm glad they're not witnessing their friends die like I did, but they need to understand the realities of living with HIV, there is no cure. As there is more than ample information everywhere already, it seems they just don't want to know. -It IS a function of youth to feel invincible and that nothing bad will ever happen to them, how sad that it seems a generation of black gay men are going to learn the truth in the worst possible way. I wonder if similar data is available here in UK about HIV infection and ethnicity. I will look for it. I wonder how much the "living on the down low" practice is going to affect black America as a whole and whether there is a similar problem here. Guys who are straight- to the point of being openly homophobic with their friends, yet cruise places where they know they can get anonymous sex with other men. Some go as far as to have regular partners- not so much out of love or affection, but because the partner is usually on hand when 'needed' and it reduces the possibility of being caught cruising. -If those men are having unprotected sex with both their male and their female partners. -And I know these guys exist here because I've met them, but not for long. I've gay friends for whom the site of a wedding ring on a man's hand in a gay bar works better than viagra. -It has the opposite effect on me. Its estimated that 1.2million people in USA are infected with HIV and that 20% are unaware of it. 77 percent of new HIV infections occurred in men,
61 percent in “men who have sex with men”
44 percent in African Americans.
Compared with their white counterparts, the rate of infection among black women is 15 times higher,
in Hispanic women, it is three times higher.
And these figures are already 2 years old.
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