A fading weapon in the HIV fight: condoms
Gay and bisexual men are using condoms less than ever, and the decline is especially steep among young or Hispanic men, a study shows. new study. The worrying trend points to an urgent need for better prevention strategies as the country struggles to beat the HIV epidemic, researchers said.
Over the past decade, prevention medication has been known as PrEP helped refuel a moderate decline in the HIV figures. And yet it has done so, despite persistent public health campaigns promoting the drugs not accepted in significant numbers by black and Hispanic men who are gay or bisexual.
The use of condoms, which prevent both HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, has decreased across the board in recent years, and not just among gay men, which has contributed to an increase in sexually transmitted infections.
Researchers said that with as much focus on PrEPpublic health officials have overlooked condoms, contributing to the decline in their use.
“The goal of promoting PrEP is valuable, but it has overshadowed other prevention strategies like condoms,” said Steven Goodreau, an HIV expert at the University of Washington. He led the new study and co-authored a related study editorial.
A spokesperson for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention acknowledged declining condom use, but said the agency continues to promote it. Local health departments that receive federal money for HIV prevention, for example, should include condom distribution in their strategies.
HIV rates have fallen in recent years, partly thanks to PrEP. But the decline in the United States – 12 percent between 2017 and 2021, according to government estimates – has followed many others rich Western to land and even some severely affected African countries.
Gay and bisexual men are disproportionately affected: they are just fine 2 percent of American adults and 70 percent of new HIV cases. And so are the infection rates much higher among black and Hispanic gay men than among white gay men.
In 2012, pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, debuted amid groundbreaking research showing that, when taken daily, antiretroviral medications virtually eliminate it the risk of contracting HIV