Behavioral Risk for HIV Infection Among Gay and Bisexual Men in the United States

Behavioral risk for HIV infection among gay and bisexual men in the United States

According to reports published by the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), they state that by the year 2004, more than nine hundred and forty thousand individuals in the United States of America had been diagnosed with AIDS, majority of who were gay men and African-Americans. This report including others have brought the issue of HIV infection in gay and bisexual men into sharp focus and more in particular the behavioral risks that the group exposes themselves to, which have contributed to the sharp increase in HIV infection amongst members of this group. This research intends to focus of this behavioral risk and preventive measures that have been established to prevent HIV infection in gay and bisexual men in the United States.

Behavioral risk

Another recent research conducted by Centre for Disease Control and Prevention show that the gay and bisexual men in the United States of America who are living with HIV could surpass half a million mark that can be translated to half of people living with HIV in the U.S. The same research also indicated that this group only represent four percent of the entire male population in the U.S. they are also the same group that reports the highest number of new HIV diagnosis among the male population in the country and due to this statistics the research by CDC concluded that the gay and bisexual men in the U.S. are the only group upon which HIV infections is still on a steady increase since the early 1990's.

According to the article written by Latkin, Sherman & Knowlton, (2003, p 332-339) some of the factors that have contributed to increase in HIV infection among this group include; first by the fact that a big percentage of gay and bisexual men are HIV positive means that anyone who is in this group and is sexually active, and also has a tendency of changing sexual partners with time or as he gets older means that such a person is more exposed to get HIV infection than other men. Secondly the drug abuse among gay and bisexual men has also led to increased infection among them, because after over indulging in alcohol or illegal drugs they are more prone to having unsafe sex. And also the sharing of needles by drug users highly exposes them to getting HIV infection. Third, lack of knowledge among this group in regards to their HIV status has led to increased infections; because once one become knowledgeable about his status he will take precautionary measures to avoid infecting his partner with the same disease and without this knowledge both partners will be living under the false assumption that they are safe and hence no dangers or possibility of being infected with HIV.

Fourthly cultural issues and social discrimination also known as homophobia against this group has also contributed to increased infection among them, because they are barred, feel unsafe or are shy to seek HIV prevention services. Lastly and referring to studies done by Hockenbury, (2008, 232-234) the issue of complacency or attitude of feeling satisfied with oneself which is mostly among the gay and bisexual men in the U.S.; contributed by the fact that they have not experienced dangers or consequences of been HIV positive makes them tend to overlook the severity of being infected. Also the false assumption that this group believes that they are due to advanced medical research HIV is not a serious health threat anymore, also the underestimation of the personal risk of getting infected hence consistently engaging in unsafe sex.

Research and studies

Wasserheit & Aral,(1996, 201-213),wrote about his findings in which they mention that by the year 2008, almost half of gay and bisexual men infected with HIV were unaware of their status and about one out of five of men in this group was HIV infected this were results of twenty one major cities in the United States. Majority of those infected include black men who could have either been gay or bisexual, followed by Latino/Hispanic men and lastly white men who reportedly only sixteen percent of them were HIV infected.

On another study that focused on age of gay and bisexual men who are HIV positive, the findings showed that in 2008, about five thousand men in this group who were HIV infected; their ages ranged from thirteen to twenty nine, while in the period between 2005-2008, gay and bisexual men in the age group of 13-24 years old, recorded the highest increase in HIV infection. Also another study conducted on the twenty one major cities of the U.S. showed that gay and bisexual men who were HIV positive, included 75% in the age group of between 18-19 years old and were previously unaware of their HIV status, while 68% of those in the age group of 20-24 years old were also unaware of their HIV status.

Preventive measures

On the issue of behavioral risk for HIV infection among the gay and bisexual men in the United States, numerous authors and medical experts have suggested various way through which this can be prevented and controlled, key among them is behavioral interventions as a preventive measure which is divide into three interventions namely the individual -- level prevention, Group intervention and community-level intervention (Wasserheit & Aral, 1996, p 201-213).

Individual-level prevention is reportedly a one on one session with a professional counselor who elaborates what HIV testing entails and what are the social and medical support readily available in case the result turns out to be positive. This form of prevention has largely been viewed to be effective and successful in HIV prevention; because when one results turns out to be positive he or she will take necessary measures to avoid infecting another person. The group-level intervention is where group forums or workshop are organized to discuss public health with an aim of encouraging healthy sexual behaviors among the gay and bisexual men and also offer social support to them. Community-level interventions according to medical counselors is a combination of both group and individual-level intervention, its main objective is promoting community norms that encourage risk reduction thereby increasing the effectiveness of the two interventions (Kelly, 1992, p 82).