Gareth Manning, Gleaner Writer
GEBRE
RECENT STUDIES by Italian researchers point to growing concerns about the sexual practices of some HIV-positive men in Italy and other parts of Europe. Health officials say that these men may believe that improved HIV/AIDS treatment means that they can reduce safe sex practices.
There are similar concerns in Jamaica where antiretroviral drugs have become significantly cheaper through government and international funding.
"The persons living with HIV are normal people like anybody, they have sexual feelings ," said former head of the National HIV/STD Prevention and Control Programme, Dr. Yitades Gebre.
In a survey conducted this year, the health official noted that 70 per cent of infected people were on anti-retroviral treatment.
"My survey never asked specifically about condom use, however, once individuals are on treatment, the normal physiological functions of the human body, including sexual drive, will be there, so they may have sexual experiences with their partners," he said.
However, Dr. Gebre said that condom use among the HIV-positive group is high in Jamaica. As many as 67 per cent of adult men and women are using condoms during inter-course with their partners.
"Seventy-four per cent of men use condoms with an irregular partner. This means this second partner, who is not the main partner, when it comes to the main partner only 30 per cent of men are using condoms and less than 15 per cent of women are using condoms," he says.
But Dr. Gebre said that having multiple partners and com-mercial sex activity complicates the problem. He said that some people have two or three partners in a year and as many as one of every six men engages in commercial sex activity for money.
"About 21,000 people are engaging in commercial sex activity and then out of this at least eight per cent are HIV-positive. Those who are engaging in commercial sex activity have the highest risk for HIV," he said.
