Mon 27 Feb 2017 In: New Zealand Daily News View at Wayback View at NDHA
A noted HIV epidemic researcher has taken the NZ Herald to task for suggesting that gay and bisexual men are disengaging from previously ingrained safe-sex habits and that this jars with the message of the Auckland Pride Parade. The Herald's comments, in an editorial printed on the morning of the Saturday evening parade, followed reporting by GayNZ.com Daily News that there was unease in some sectors of the glbti communities about the newly-crowned Mr Gay New Zealand, who is HIV-positive and also a NZ AIDS Foundation community outreach staffer, seeking condomless sex through 'barebacking' hook-up websites. The NZAF had responded that provided a person's viral load is made reliably undetectable by proper use of medications and that person divulges his HIV-positive status to a potential partner there are fewer concerns than would have been the case in past times when condoms were the only proven effective way of avoiding acquiring HIV during anal sex. In a letter to the Herald, researcher Dr Peter Saxton of the University of Auckland says "contrary to the Herald’s insinuation that gay men are disengaged with safe sex, gay men have been leaders at safe sex research, promotion and practice for thirty years in their roles as scientists, advocates and community members." Consequently, Saxton says, "most studies show that gay men use condoms more often and are more likely to test for HIV and other STIs compared to the general population. And many gay men who aren’t consistent condom users report behaviours that minimise HIV transmission risks with their partners." "On the other hand, condom use among heterosexual New Zealanders is poorer, and we see high rates of teenage pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections such as chlamydia and gonorrhoea and, at least until government-funded vaccination programmes, high rates of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection that can cause cancer." Saxton notes that the Herald editorial "highlights the importance of correct and consistent condom use to control HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs). However, it neglects to note the recent global consensus led by UNAIDS and the World Health Organisation in 2015 recommending that countries also adopt HIV treatment-based approaches to reverse their HIV epidemics. This is a both/and approach, not an either/or trade-off."
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Monday, 27th February 2017 - 11:32pm