The World Health Organisation (WHO) is urging all sexually active g ay men to take antiretroviral drugs to reduce the spread of HIV. But, says a [s]BBC News[/s] report, activists suggest this could discourage the use of c ondoms – one of the best methods to stop the virus spreading. According to the WHO report, men who have sex with men are 19 times more likely to have HIV than the general population. And health experts say offering antiretroviral drugs to all at-risk men – known as pre-exposure prophylaxis – will provide an additional way to prevent infection, together with c ondom use.
The [b]WHO[/b] identified five key groups, including g ay men, pro stitutes and prisoners, whose stubbornly high rates of HIV are ‘threatening progress’ in the global Aids battle, writes [s]Reuters Health[/s]. WHO said that these people are most at risk of becoming infected with HIV, yet are least likely to get HIV prevention, testing and treatment services. Gottfried Hirnschall, director at the WHO said that in many countries, g ay men, se x workers and other marginalised groups are left out of national HIV plans and excluded by discriminatory laws and policies. The WHO report said that by the end of 2013, around 13m people worldwide were taking Aids drug treatment. This has led to a 20% drop in HIV-related deaths between 2009 and 2012.
[link url=http://www.bbc.com/news/health-28264436]Full BBC News report[/link]
[link url=http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2014/key-populations-to-hiv/en]WHO statement[/link]
[link url=http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/11/us-health-aids-who-idUSKBN0FG0FY20140711]Full Reuters Health report[/link]
[link url=http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/128048/1/9789241507431_eng.pdf?ua=1]WHO guidelines[/link]