Gay and bi men may at last be heeding the safe sex message during the current resurgence of the HIV epidemic, with the number of newly diagnosed infections dipping slightly for the first time after six years of worrying increases. Figures released today by the based AIDS Epidemiology Group based in Dunedin show that seventy gay and bisexual men sexually active in New Zealand were diagnosed with HIV in 2006, a rate of one every five days. The New Zealand AIDS Foundation says the figures are a welcome drop on 2005, which saw 90 new diagnoses among gay and bisexual men, or one every four days, the most ever in a single year since the deadly epidemic was first apparent in New Zealand in the mid 1980s. But the Foundation is still cautioning against complacency. “While it's great news that we've seen a decrease for gay and bisexual men this year, this doesn't mean that we are less at risk,” says NZAF Chair Hoani Jeremy Lambert. He says 2005 was "a particularly bad year," and observes that the slightly reduced number of men diagnosed with HIV in 2006 "is still more than double what we were seeing between 1997 and 2000.” Gay and bisexual men remain the highest risk group for HIV, comprising 80% of the total number of 2006 diagnoses where infection occurred within New Zealand, although there was a slight increase in heterosexual transmission during 2006. New Zealand's soaring rate of HIV infection, a disease for which there is still no cure, over the past five years has been mirrored in other affluent western gay and bi communities. Of the 70 gay/bi diagnoses in 2006, 52 were infections were contracted in New Zealand. Of these 33% are known for certain to have been infected in the previous two years because they received a negative HIV test in that time. The North Island and Auckland are still disproportionately represented in the statistics, 81% live in the North Island, with 56% from the Auckland region and 17% from Wellington. The average age of those infected was 38, 77% were of European ethnicity, 11% Maori, 8% Asian and 2% Pacific. In contrast, new diagnosis figures for heterosexual people increased slightly in 2006. This is attributed to the government's more rigorous immigrant screening programme which is revealing HIV infections contracted before they arrived to live in New Zealand. “HIV does not affect everyone in New Zealand equally,” Lambert says. “As gay men, we remain the primary risk group because of the risk of transmission via anal sex, and because most of our infections occur here in New Zealand, not overseas. This virus is on our doorstep, and in our communities.” NZAF is reminding gay and bisexual men this year that it's not who you are, but what you do that puts you at risk of HIV. “You don't get HIV simply because you're gay or bisexual – you get it by having anal sex without a condom,” Lambert says. * A summary of the infection figures for each of the last ten years is available at the link below. Ref: GayNZ.com (j) Related links:
Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff
First published: Wednesday, 14th March 2007 - 12:00pm