(Vancouver) – Newly positive HIV tests reported among gay men in B.C. continue to surpass late 1990 levels, according to a recent study in the Journal of the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes (JAIDS) and newly published data.
In the JAIDS study, researchers from the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS and the B.C. Centre for Disease Control (BC-CDC) reveal that 95 newly positive HIV tests were reported in 1999 among gay males in B.C. who do not inject drugs.
In 2003, the number of newly positive HIV tests among the same demographic jumped to 145. Recently released figures for 2004 by BC-CDC indicate more than 166 newly positive HIV tests have been reported among young gay males in B.C. The increase among gay males counters a significant decline reported in the late ’90s.
Several factors may be contributing to the increase, the JAIDS study notes, including a significant rise in the proportion of gay males engaging in unprotected anal intercourse with casual partners and an increase in sexually transmitted co-infections that facilitate HIV transmission.
“There is an immediate need to develop and deliver effective, targeted interventions to address this risk of HIV among gay men in BC,” says Dr. Thomas Lampinen, an epidemiologist at the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS and lead author of the report.
A community-based response – including input from HIV-positive men, gay men, and community and health agencies – is needed to determine both the cause of this sustained rise and to develop possible solutions, says Lampinen.
Two independent data sources – the Vanguard study of young gay men in Vancouver and the results of HIV tests throughout the province – were featured in the JAIDS report, titled”Sustained increase in HIV incidence since 2000 among men who have sex with men in British Columbia, Canada.”
The research was supported by the B.C.-based Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research.