Do MSM and Bisexual Men in the United Kingdom listen to warnings about safe sex and HIV infection?

You may think that the answer would be yes to this question. But estimates revealed today by the Health Protection Agency (HPA), for 2008 show that answer is No. Out of the 7,370 new cases reported in 2008, 2,830 are men who have sex with men (MSM) and bisexual men although it is down from last year by 220 cases. I don’t know what is more worrying that 2 in every 5 cases of new infection is from MSM or bisexual community, or that a fifth of cases among MSM and bisexual men were beyond the point at which treatment should have begun, raising the risk of death in the first year. I can’t really comment on this because I was only diagnosed last year, so this includes me. I was in and out of hospital for about 3 months and it wasn’t picked up until I was back in London and I had a new doctor and he wanted to get me tested for everything because he couldn’t understand why I was responding so poorly. To cut a long story short, I when to the West London Centre for Sexual Health and had a full sexual health screen and in about 90 mins I was told I was HIV positive.

This was the first time I had a sexual health screen since living in England, being I wasn’t sexually active during the time I was here, and I thought I didn’t think I really need to have one I had a HIV test before I left Australia and it was negative. This sounds quite bad but at the time I couldn’t remember when the last time I had sex was. Working it out, I now know it was about two and a half before diagnosis, on my 28th Birthday, so that day is a bit fucked each year now. My CD4 count was under 150 and on its way down!! I started Med’s within 6 weeks of finding out my diagnosis.

I can understand the HPA’s concern over the high number of late diagnoses. Being that over 1/3 of people with HIV don’t know that have it, and the longer HIV goes undetected the more it attacks your immune system. I think the biggest stigma about HIV is from within the LGBT Community. It’s not only the fear of being HIV positive but it’s also the fear of finding out their own status. And it’s not only the LGBT that are getting tested now days. It’s just a smart thing do, across the board.

It is very scary to me when I read reports about people aged 16 to 24 years old who are experimenting with their sexuality and are not educated about STD’s and HIV/AIDS. It really is a subject that needs to be discussed in school. I stand by the HPA when they say that education is one of the strongest tools we can use to educate young people in the fight against HIV. Maybe the Education authority in the United Kingdom or the THT need to work with schools and let the students talk to someone that is HIV positive so they have firsthand knowledge about STD’s and how they can affect your life, family, friends and your body. People need to know the safety issues that go along with being positive.

I really don’t think that young people today understand the danger of unprotected sex. Maybe if they understood the stigma and discrimination that goes hand in hand with HIV they would have a better understanding of how society, friends, and family have a unfavourable attitude towards people that are HIV positive.

In my opinion I feel that the best tool that the human race has in the fight against HIV and AIDS is our mouths. The more we talk about the subject the easier it will be to lose the stigma and discrimination that goes along with this disease. And just maybe we, as the human race will become more accepting of the things we don’t understand, and maybe HIV will not be labelled as their disease and we will raise awareness within the youth of today, and we will be able to take the first step in educating the world, raising public awareness, and another big step in the fight against HIV and AIDS.