Thu 5 Jun 2014 In: New Zealand Daily News View at Wayback View at NDHA
Associate professor Nigel Dickson The annual numbers of gay and bi men in New Zealand newly diagnosed with HIV have remained relatively consistent over the past five years according to just-released figures covering 2013. A historically low period for diagnoses in the late 1990s was blown out of the water in the early 2000s, with a soaring rate attributed to the effect of internet hookups, the larger pool of men unknowingly living with HIV, 'condom fatigue' and an increase in the numbers of men getting tested for the debilitating virus which can lead to AIDS. Last year a confirmed 114 men who have sex with men were diagnosed, though the actual figure is likely to be slightly higher as the sexuality or risk factor for eighteen men diagnosed with HIV is not known. In recent years the annual number of infections diagnosed amongst gay and bi men has remained within the high 90s to low 120s range, bucking the trend in other western nations such as Australia, the USA and Britain where the rate of annual HIV diagnoses amongst men who have sex with men continues to soar. 60 percent of the gay and bi men diagnosed last year were NZ European and 24 percent were of Asian ethnicity. 74 percent were Auckland-based with the balance spread more or less proportionately throughout the other regions. “While the number of new diagnoses among gay and bisexual men is higher now than in the late 1990s, it is encouraging that it is not continuing to rise as could happen with more living with HIV hence capable of onward transmission, as is happening in some other countries,” says Associate Professor Nigel Dickson, Director of the AIDS Epidemiology Group which monitors and collates the nation's HIV figures. Dickson says it is essential that at-risk people such as gay and bi men feel confident enough to take on board safe-sex messages and to undertake HIV tests. “It is important that the stigma and discrimination around HIV – and those groups at risk - that still exist are combated in the general population, as this will enable these people to feel safe about accessing information on prevention and testing." Year by year numbers of HIV infections in NZ with gay and bi men shown in red.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Thursday, 5th June 2014 - 12:01am