So, let's see... Is it "anti-gay" to be concerned that so many men are terribly sick and don't know it? That the promotion of homosexual behaviors as "just another option" is the reason behind this? This is very sad... Yet our schools and culture continue to tell young men and women that anal intercourse is a legitimate and safe means of sexual expression. And as with abortion, this is hitting our black population the hardest.
Many gay, bisexual men don’t know they have HIV
By Mike Stobbe
Associated Press / September 24, 2010
ATLANTA — One in five sexually active gay and bisexual men has the AIDS virus, and nearly half of those don’t know they are infected, a federal study of 21 US cities says.
Specialists said the findings are similar to earlier research, but the study released yesterday is the largest to look at gay and bisexual US men at high risk for HIV. More than 8,000 men were tested and interviewed, and 44 percent of those who had the virus didn’t know they had it.
Overall, less than half of 1 percent of Americans have the AIDS virus, according to a calculation by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a research and policy organization in Washington, D.C.
But gay and bisexual men continue to be infected at much higher rates, said Jennifer Kates, Kaiser’s director of global health and HIV policy.
That’s why a new national AIDS strategy, unveiled by the White House in July, is emphasizing more of a government focus on men who have sex with men and others at the highest risk of being infected, Kates said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends HIV testing at least once a year for all men who have sex with men and are sexually active, but research indicates more than half don’t get tested.
An earlier study in just five cities in 2004-05 found similar results.
The new study, conducted in 2008, included 16 additional cities. Researchers offered free testing to the men, interviewed them, and paid around $25 for their participation.
Black men who were sexually active with other men were more likely to have HIV, with 28 percent reportedly infected, compared with 18 percent of their Hispanic counterparts and 16 percent of white homosexuals.
Black homosexuals were also least likely to know they were infected — about 60 percent didn’t know they had HIV — compared with 46 percent of Hispanics and 26 percent of whites.
