HIV Work Needs Paradigm Shift

New generation of gay New Yorkers requires new approach


By Dr. Perry N. Halkitis in The New York Blade

Friday, September 28, 2007

The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene this month released a report that indicated a surge in new HIV infections among gay men (also referred to as "men who have sex with men," or MSM) younger than 30. For many of us who work in this field, the announcement was no surprise. There is no doubt that this pattern in new infections among young MSM is not only very real but also puzzling and troublesome. Twenty-six years into the epidemic, MSM in the United States continue to constitute the majority of those infected with the
virus despite millions of dollars in education and prevention aimed at reducing HIV transmission.

Our own research at New York University documents the continual struggle with safer sex even among those who lead otherwise "healthy" lives. Numerous explanations have been offered by academics like myself about the continued and perhaps growing struggle with AIDS: optimism in light of HIV treatment advances, decreases in funding to AIDS service organizations, the higher rates of depression in our population, the emergence of a new generation of gay men who did not witness the devastation that AIDS caused in the 1980s, the lack of effective prevention messages and increased promiscuity enhanced by the recreational use drugs such as crystal meth. These issues all conspire to create a general malaise toward the disease and safer sex strategies.

No one of these factors alone can simply be responsible for where we are today; more likely, these all work synergistically to create a state of complacency and risk and thus perpetuate HIV in our lives. For those of us who lived through and witnessed that ravages that AIDS has wrought on our community, there is a level of disbelief that anyone would place him or herself at risk of this infection.

BUT THIS IS NOT A time to point fingers, slam the gay community as irresponsible, or demand that everyone be tested without appropriate guidance and counseling. Rather, we need to reconsider the strategies that we use to work with gay men around this disease.

Read the rest.

[Please read the rest and come back and share your thoughts and ideas in comments]