05 Jul 05

A recent study of gay men in five US cities has found that nearly half – 46% - of black gay men were HIV positive.

Gus Cairns
www.guscairns.com

A recent study of gay men in five US cities has found that nearly half – 46% - of black gay men were HIV positive.

This compares with one in five white gay men and one in six Hispanic men.

For comparison, about one in eight gay men in London has HIV and only about one in 12 in cities like Manchester.

The survey also found that two-thirds of black men were unaware of their infection, compared with only one in five white men.

Dr Frangiscos Sifakis of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore tested 1,767 gay men for HIV at bars, clubs, organisations and other venues in five cities in 2004-5.

He found that 84% of the men who were unaware they had HIV had in fact been tested for it before, and nearly 60% in the previous year, which suggests an extremely fast-growing epidemic among black men.

These results may not be typical of the US as a whole, but countrywide almost half of Latinos and one-third of African Americans have never taken an HIV test, and a pilot programme in San Francisco recently recruited volunteer advisors to talk to men about whether they were gay or injected drugs and refer them to testing.

When asked why they hadn’t tested recently, the majority of men said they were afraid of finding they were positive and of others finding out too.

Black churches in the USA have recently been criticised for continuing to preach fire-and-brimstone sermons against homosexuality to congregations who may be secretly gay or at high risk of HIV.