• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Gays Grow Complacent About HIV

Posted on: Wednesday, 26 October 2005, 15:01 CDT

Wayne Bridge-Smith has defied a doctor's death sentence to survive HIV, the virus that leads to Aids.

But better treatment for people like him is a reason why gay men are becoming complacent about safe sex.

KELLY ANDREW and JOANNA DAVIS report.

.

In 1987 Wayne Bridge-Smith was told he had HIV and would probably be dead in five years.

He was 30, gay, living in Sydney and working in a nightclub after leaving New Zealand because he found it too homophobic.

Doctors said he had probably been infected seven or eight years earlier and his outlook was bleak.

"There was no medication. The only thing available was AZT, which was very limited. It was a death sentence, and I was told that by the doctor. I realised straight away that I had to alter my whole life," Bridge- Smith says.

And he did, cutting out dairy products, caffeine and alcohol, and moving to a national park in Queensland to lead a quieter life.

More than a dozen of his close friends had died of the virus by then, and he knew he could be next.

But now, almost 20 years later and back living in his hometown of Wellington, Wayne is gleefully alive. Although thin, he is an energetic and surprisingly healthy-looking 48-year-old.

"If anyone had told me in 2000 that I was still going to be alive in almost 2006, I would have questioned their sanity."

But Bridge-Smith's survival is part of the reason many gay men are becoming complacent about the risk of contracting HIV.

He says that gay men he knows see Aids as a disease of the past, or something that is less frightening now because advances in treatment are allowing HIV-positive people to live longer.

"The information is out there, but people seem to not want to hear it any more. I hear people saying, `It's such an '80s thing'."

Young gay men are not as afraid of HIV as they should be, he says. They think they can just take a pill and be OK. Even unprotected sex with someone who has HIV is not out of the question for some of them, although Bridge-Smith says he would never have sex without a condom.

"The (number) of young gay people, 19 to 25-year-olds, who are only too willing to have unprotected sex! There's no fear, they don't understand that it's a nightmare, and it's life-changing."

His daily reality is swallowing a cocktail of pills, managing severe side-effects -- such as nausea and nightmares -- struggling to get a job, and being vigilant against bugs such as colds and flu.

"It's hard work. You have to really battle it all the time. It's definitely a way of thinking, totally. Anyone who sits there thinking, `Poor me, I'm dying, I'm dying', is probably going to get sick."

The Aids Foundation, which is marking its 20-year anniversary this year, is warning that if current trends continue, 2005 could be a record year for new HIV infections in homosexual men.

The number of cases has been rising since 2002. There were 44 new diagnoses in the first half of this year, an average of one every four days. From 1997 to 2001 there were 35 a year on average.

"It looks as though 20 years of good work from the gay community and from HIV prevention organisations is now being unravelled," Aids Foundation research director Tony Hughes says.

"If the trend for the first half of this year continues, we'll be looking at 88 HIV diagnoses. That would be the highest number ever in the history of the epidemic in New Zealand."

The virus, not the gay community, has now gained the upper hand.

The foundation believes lower visibility of HIV, an increase in internet dating by gay men, optimism about better treatment, and what it calls the "eroticisation of risk", are factors behind the increase.

Rachael Le Mesurier, the foundation's executive director, says that, despite its consistent education messages, the basic reality is that too many gay men are having sex without a condom.

Gay men of all ages are now more likely to meet over the internet than in bars and nightclubs making it harder to reach them with safe sex messages, such as posters and fliers.

The eroticisation of risk refers to the sexual allure of the illicit, she says. Some men, and women, perceive unprotected sex as having an edge of danger.

"The sense of something that's spontaneous, anonymous, has a sense of overwhelming passion without common sense, is something that many humans want, both heterosexual and homosexual."

She acknowledges that the foundation -- which has a budget of $3 million a year, 80 per cent of which comes from the Government -- needs to update its health- promotion work in line with the new environment.

"It's more about trying to keep ahead of the types of changes that are so rapidly happening."

Christchurch Sexual Health Centre educator William Pearce says gay men do seem to be noticeably less concerned about safe sex. The complacency could partially be explained by condom "fatigue", he says. "We keep plugging on and looking at different ways to bring the message, but people do become complacent."

The Aids Foundation will run a four-hour sexual health workshop in Christchurch for men aged 40 and over on November 14, with the aim of teaching sexual self-care.

A lot of recent HIV cases have been of men in that age group, says Pearce.

Wellingtonian Bill Logan, who helped establish the Aids Support Network, which became the Aids Foundation in 1985, agrees that young gay men are not the only ones at fault.

"Men in my generation -- I'm in my 50s -- sometimes get a bit tired of being careful in a more relaxed environment and can take risks which might not be wise. It's older people who are getting the virus as much as -- or probably even more -- than younger people. People have relaxed a bit too much, and this is dangerous."

Figures for last year back these comments. The average age of gay men becoming infected with HIV in New Zealand was 38, and 24% were aged over 50.

The Aids Foundation's message has always been one of safe sex without value judgements about how, where and between whom it takes place.

Communications co-ordinator Steve Attwood cites Christchurch club Menfriends as an example of best practice when he says cruise clubs are part of the solution in New Zealand, rather than part of the problem.

"Unlike some countries, where they campaign to close gay sex-on- site venues, we realised early on that that would drive men underground. Instead, they become a place where you can reach men with education," he says.

"Menfriends sets the standard that we would like to see. It has notices everywhere with safe sex messages, condoms and lube available everywhere ... and signs saying people who don't practise safe sex would be asked to leave. The owner has taken an incredibly responsible position."

Bill Logan says it is important that the Aids Foundation keeps in close contact with its roots and feels owned by the gay community, rather than becoming a broader advocacy group.

In New Zealand, Aids remains overwhelmingly a gay issue, and the foundation's message should be "culturally specific", he says.

"It's hugely important that the Aids Foundation's special status as a gay-owned organisation is preserved. The messages for behaviour change have got to be specific or they won't work. They've got to come from an organisation which feels like it's responsible to that constituency."

Wayne Bridge-Smith says HIV is a canny, devastating disease that people should take every measure to avoid.

"HIV is certainly still around and it's not going to go away, it's too intelligent."

--------------------

Source: Press, The; Christchurch, New Zealand

More News in this Category