| |
|||||||
|
|||||||
|
|||||||
 |
 |
|
HOME>WEBMASTER RESOURCE>LATEST NEWS>CHAT ROOMS |
|
| CHAT ROOMS A MEETING PLACE FOR RISKY SEX Internet Chat Rooms Are Common Way to Arrange Sexual Encounters; Experts Cite HIV Risk The
Associated Press Research released Tuesday suggests that for some, the Internet serves the same hazardous purpose as gay bathhouses did in the early 1980s, when the AIDS virus first spread rampantly among homosexual men. "The Internet is a new venue associated with high-risk sex," said Sabina Hirshfield. "It is a quick and easy way to meet partners." The AIDS epidemic has leveled off in the United States over the past decade. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates 40,000 new HIV infections occur annually. Nevertheless, a variety of new data raise concern that AIDS may once again be increasing. The report by Hirschfield and colleagues from the Medical and Health Research Association of New York City was among several on the spread of AIDS presented at the 10th Conference on Retroviruses in Boston. Her report was based on online surveys filled out by nearly 3,000 men using the Web site gay.com, which describes itself as "the largest gay media property in the world." They were mostly white, college-educated men from all over the United States, and half were under 30. The survey found that 84 percent said they met sex partners online, and about two-thirds had recently had anal sex without condoms. About one-quarter of the men said they had had more 100 sex partners during their lives. While federal officials are not convinced that HIV is spreading more rampantly these days, several clues suggest it may be. The CDC's Dr. Ronald Valdiserri noted that in 2001, for the first time in eight years, the number of newly diagnosed AIDS cases rose a slight 1 percent. Furthermore, data gathered from 25 states found the number of newly diagnosed HIV infections increased 8 percent between 1999 and 2001. "We are concerned, and we are looking very carefully at these trends for what they might do in the future," he said. Possible reasons cited by experts for an increase include the much higher number of Americans living with AIDS as a result of lifesaving medicines, fading memories of the ravages of the disease in earlier years and a sense that HIV can be readily treated. One of the CDC's goals is to make sure that HIV-infected people know they have the virus so they will get treatment and be careful not pass it on to others. The CDC estimates that one-third of the 900,000 people living with HIV know of their infections. However, new data from Baltimore suggest that the percentage who know their status is growing. Doctors at Johns Hopkins University's emergency department routinely offer HIV testing to patients. Charlamaine Henson said the number unaware of their infections dropped from 63 percent in 1988 to 26 percent in 2000 and 19 percent in 2001. Another study from the University of North Carolina found that newly released prisoners may be especially likely to spread HIV through risky sex. Dr. David Wohl and colleagues surveyed 86 HIV-infected men and women and found that one-quarter had sex without condoms with their regular partners within a month of their release. Half of these people believed that their partners did not have the virus. "Prisons in many ways facilitate the transmission of HIV," Wohl said. "Our experience is that when people get out of prison, there are two things they want to do, and one of them is get a Big Mac." Much research suggests that people are most likely to pass the virus on to others soon after they catch it, since their virus levels are especially high then. A study from Uganda found that nearly half of HIV transmission between heterosexual couples occurs during the first five months after one partner gets the virus. Dr.
Maria Wawer reported that among these African couples, who did not
use condoms, there was an 8-in-1,000 chance of passing on the virus
with each sex act during those first five months after infection.
The risk then dropped to 1 in 1,000 but climbed again to 5 in 1,000
in the 15 months before the infected person died of AIDS.
SOURCE>AVNONLINE.COM >ABCNEWS.COM |
