Featured news from NHIVNA
HIV-related news from NAM
Crystal meth and London gay men – examining the evidence
Roger Pebody, 2013-02-11 08:20:00
Last month the respected medical journal The Lancet published a news feature, describing an increasing number of London gay men who take methamphetamine (crystal meth), including a significant number who inject it, often at chill-outs and sex parties. There are concerns that use of the drug is associated with unprotected sex, multiple partners and needle sharing, leading to transmission of HIV, hepatitis C and other sexually transmitted infections.
Concern about the drug is hardly new – it has been an issue in US gay communities since the 1990s. There have been anecdotal reports of use by UK gay men in recent years, with the issue being thoroughly examined by HIV Treatment Update three years ago.
And more recently some have linked alcohol and drug use to the unchanged rate of new HIV infections in UK gay men over the past decade, although there are no data which could support or refute such a claim.
But is there new evidence of increasing use of crystal meth by gay men in the UK? In order to inform the debate about the role that substance use work should play in HIV prevention, we clarify what we know and don’t know.
Source:1
