The risk of HIV infection of gay men is very high

These people have the wrong belief that lubricants can prevent HIV, only women have syphilis or chicken cramps. Even "gay" people believe that if swallowing sperm of young people under 20 years old will be very beneficial for health.

MSM ( short for words: Men who have sex with men ) is a common way of calling gay men today. Due to lack of knowledge, MSM communities have had unsafe sex behaviors (unprotected relationships) for themselves and their partners like anal sex without condoms or Use condoms irregularly, do not use condoms when having oral sex, ejaculating into the mouth and swallow semen .

Propagating about male sexual safety at the 3rd HIV / AIDS conference, held in Ho Chi Minh City

The study of Dr. Khuat Thu Hong, Institute of Social Sex and Men, shows that most MSM have very misconceptions or inadequate understanding of the harmful effects of sexual behavior. unsafe sex. They believe that lubricants can prevent HIV during anal sex, or believe that swallowing semen of young people under 20 is healthy. Even, MSM believes that diseases such as syphilis and chicken cramps are "exclusive" for women. Only being infected with HIV when injecting drugs or having sex with women, and men having sex with men . are completely harmless.

Through research, Dr. Hong found that very few MSM were aware of the risk of infection but had no protection because they were afraid of being abused by their partners. If you use a condom, you can only use it with someone who is new to you for the first time. When you are familiar with it, they believe and . do not take precautions.

Dr. Hong said that, until now, we have only focused on two subjects who are most at risk of being infected with HIV: injecting drugs and prostitutes. There is no interest in the risk of HIV infection for MSM communities. Meanwhile, the possibility of HIV infection in this community is very large because: MSM often have a lot of dating, huge sexual demands, high frequency of intercourse so an MSM often has many partners. "I have more than 100 Vietnamese and foreign partners. If we know a new person, we introduce each other. So each of us has a lot of partners. HIV infection? I think only There is no connection with women who have been infected and men and men do not have it, "said a 25-year-old MSM in Hanoi.

Most MSM are unaware that very vulnerable anal sex, bleeding bleeding and HIV or sexually transmitted diseases will be infected by scratches. scratch this. One MSM has a lot of sexual partners, just one person with HIV is very quick to infect all partners. Now, according to national estimates of about 100,000 MSM, Dr. Hong explains that is why the risk of HIV infection from the SMS community is very high.

Despite such a risk, due to the stigma of social stigma, MSM rarely use public health health services. When they have sexually transmitted diseases, they often buy medicine to use. They also use very little voluntary testing services and many health workers do not know MSM sexual health issues, Dr. Hong said.

The study also shows a link between migration and homosexual sex. People in their homeland do not dare to reveal their true identity because of their family's honor, because of the bad talk of their neighbors, so they often go to other countries to settle down. They migrate from rural to urban areas, or from one city to another to live with their true nature. Many of them become professional sex workers because this job makes them easy to make money. Participating in this activity also has many other components such as students, workers, soldiers, drug addicts, street children, unemployed people . "I often find young people like the students of provinces up the city studied but it was difficult to flirt and ask them to go out and eat and then set the conditions to buy and sell with them, they needed no money, they easily agreed ", a 53-year-old MSM admission.

Due to unrecognized gay relationships in society, MSM are not interested in helping, not being informed about sexual health and about the risk of HIV / AIDS infection.

According to experts, all interventions for MSM must respect the diversity of this community. Need to attract the participation of MSM in the whole process of intervention. Should use the familiar locations of MSMs for meditative activities. Most needed is the sympathy of their social nature. MSM also said that they need MSM-friendly sexual health counseling services. And they also need social acceptance of sexual identity.

For activities aimed at reducing the risk of HIV infection in MSM communities, condom use skills need to be improved, condom quality and variety of services are provided. Organize MSM-friendly sexual health counseling services to increase the number of people seeking testing and treatment.

Vo An