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A majority of HIV-positive gay men in Dutch survey take their viral load into consideration if having unprotected sex
Gus Cairns, 2013-04-29 09:50:00
About 40% of men who answered a community survey for HIV-positive gay men in the Netherlands said they took their viral load into consideration in deciding whether or not use condoms. This represents about two-thirds of those who actually did have unprotected sex.
This published paper adds new data to this study’s original conference presentation at the AIDS Impact conference in 2011.
The survey found that consideration of viral load was almost as common when having sex with partners who also had HIV as when having sex with partners of negative or unknown status. Disclosure and discussion of viral load was far more common with HIV-positive partners, whereas viral load was rarely discussed with partners assumed to be HIV negative, remaining purely part of a unilateral decision.
The study also found that this group of HIV-positive men, who, as part of a community consultation panel providing advice to the Netherlands HIV Association (NHA), might be assumed to be well informed on HIV prevention matters, were as a group by no means convinced that undetectable viral load protected them from transmitting HIV to partners. Not surprisingly, the more confident individuals were that this was the case, the more likely they were to take it into account as part of a decision to have condomless sex.
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