A new study revealed that unprotected sex between gay men has increased by 20 percent in just a decade. Federal health authorities are now greatly bothered as it seemed that their anti-AIDS campaigns were not that effective.
According to the data presented by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), unprotected gay sex had increased by almost 20 percent from 2005 to 2011. From the survey done in 2011, unprotected anal sex is more than twice as common to those men who are uncertain whether they had contracted the HIV disease.
Researchers have been monitoring the gay men community since 2005 as part of the National H.I.V. Behavioral Surveillance System which monitors the HIV trend in the U.S. It is conducted in various gay-frequented bars, parks and streets in 20 cities in three-year intervals. The report admits the limitations of the survey saying that it must be unable to account high-risk segments such those who cannot be found in those target areas such as teenagers, prisoners, and closet gays.
The CDC findings were also compared to another study in San Francisco which reported an increase in unprotected sex during the period 1998 to 2008.
Although the report did not explain the increase in unprotected sex, CDC director Dr. Thomas Frieden elaborated on a leading theory that more gay people are turning to “sero-sorting.” This is the selection of sex partners who are not infected by the virus. However this is only based on lab reports that are not up-to-date or merely on an unconfirmed hope or promise that they are uninfected.
The CDC recommends sexually-active gays to undergo HIV tests at least once a year. However, many physicians suggest that it should be done every 3 or 6 months.
The upward trend of unprotected sex is also paralleled in different reports from other countries such as Australia, Britain, Canada, France, and the Netherlands. This is causing an alarm in public health authorities all over the world.
The study was published in the Nov. 29 issue of the CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR).
