File photo Commitment to condom use will remain by far the most important tool in the fight against the spread of HIV amongst New Zealand men who have sex with men, according to the NZ AIDS Foundation. Speaking at an HIV Treatments Update forum this morning, NZAF Executive Director Shaun Robinson said the use of condoms by gay and bi men in New Zealand is very high by world standards and this 'effective condom culture' would be placed at risk by any adoption by individuals or educators of the principle that a suppressed HIV level can be an important tool in minimising HIV infection. Robinson says there is too little factual information available on how the increasingly internationally lauded Treatment as Prevention, or TasP, technique would apply to gay and bi men. Figures fuelling the international optimism suggest a 96% drop in the risk of transmitting HIV if an infected person's virus is highly suppressed are primarily based on studies of straight people. There is as yet no comparable data available regarding TasP and anal sex other than the understanding that HIV is 18 times more likely to be transmitted through anal sex compared to vaginal sex. On a practical level recent New Zealand research indicates that one in five men whith HIV don't know they even have the virus, and in the USA only 19% of those with HIV have sufficiently repressed HIV levels to make Treatment as Prevention' a possibility. TasP might be useful in other countries where the affected population and sexual behaviour are different, Robinson says, but we have a "unique position" in New Zealand with our epidemic being primarily amongst gay and bi men. And, he says, our relatively low transmission rate due to the high use of condoms by kiwi men who have sex with men is too important to risk. The Foundation believes that condom use would drop if HIV positive people rely on their supposed level of HIV meaning they are a lessened threat to their sexual partners. "We must not relax our proven effective use of condoms in pursuit of the 'false glimmer' of an easier solution," he said. Assoc. Professor Don Smith Also speaking at this morning's session of the HIV Treatments Update, organised by Body Positive, was a Sydney specialist in HIV, Associate Professor Don Smith. He indicated that TasP was becoming an increasingly important part of New South Wales' prevention arsenal. However, he acknowledged that embracing TasP was a reaction to widespread unsafe sexual behaviour amongst too many gayand bi men in NSW, and central Sydney in particular. Unlike New Zealand where there has been a lowering of the annual number of HIV diagnoses, from an all time high, over the past eighteen months, NSW rates are continuing an inexorable climb evident for almost a decade. Smith also noted that, as one of the main HIV specialists working with HIV positive gay and bi men in central Sydney, he is under extreme pressure by NSW health authorities to embrace treatment of HIV to lower infection rates, based on a possibly unobtainable goal of eliminating HIV transmission in New South Wales by the year 2018.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Friday, 21st September 2012 - 1:00pm