Some Gay Men Think HIV Drugs Prevent Virus Spread

Some gay and bisexual HIV-positive men continue to engage in sexually risky behavior, believing that their powerful drug treatments will prevent the virus from being transmitted to their sex partners, according to new study findings. In light of such findings, "transmission-prevention beliefs appear to be central to understanding the HIV-related sexual risk behavior of gay and bisexual men," according to study authors David M. Huebner and Mary A. Gerend, both of Arizona State University.

To investigate, Huebner and Gerend analyzed survey responses from 575 gay and bisexual men from Phoenix, Ariz. Almost one-fifth of the men said they had never been tested for HIV. Eighty percent of those who had been tested were HIV-negative and 20 percent were HIV-positive. HIV-positive and HIV-negative men who believed that drug cocktails decreased the risk of HIV transmission were 30 percent more likely to engage in unprotected receptive anal sex with casual partners and were less likely to report intending to use condoms for receptive anal sex. HIV-positive men who held this belief were also more than twice as likely as their peers to engage in unprotected insertive anal sex, according to the report published in the November 2001 issue of the Annals of Behavioral Medicine.

Surprisingly, however, HIV-negative men who believed that HIV drug cocktails decreased the risk of HIV transmission also perceived themselves as being more susceptible to HIV -- a finding that the researchers identified as "interesting and unexpected." Those who engaged in sexually risky behavior also perceived themselves as being more susceptible to HIV, the report indicated. Huebner and Gerend conclude that, "interventions will need to aid men in realistically evaluating whether the potential protection afforded by [powerful HIV therapies] truly warrants abandoning more traditional risk reduction approaches [i.e. consistent condom use]."

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