Risky boozers!

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HIV-positive men who seek out new experiences and think alcohol can improve sex are more likely to have unprotected sex, according to a new study.
The research found that HIV-positive men who were 'sensation seekers' were more likely to have unprotected sex - regardless of alcohol use.

Sensation seekers actually use alcohol to disinhibit themselves from engaging in risky behaviour - and may also believe that drinking will enhance their sexual experience.

Herpes: more common than we think

A study presented at the Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS) conference has found that high levels of Herpes simplex virus 2 (HSV-2) among HIV-positive patients in south London put them at increased risk of transmitting HIV.
Among 800 patients, the study found that 71 per cent were infected with HSV-2 - the virus which causes genital herpes and increases the risk of HIV transmission.
Meanwhile, another study found that herpes infection is often asymptomatic. The IUSTI sexual infections conference in Vienna heard that while less than 40 per cent of people attending the HIV clinic at Kings College Hospital were aware that they had HSV-2, blood tests revealed that 83 per cent of women and 64 per cent of men were actually infected with it. Black African men and women and black Caribbean women were the most likely to have both HIV and HSV-2 infection.
A third Conference, ICAAC in San Diego, heard that though only 20 per cent of infected people get the characteristic repeated attacks of herpes sores, completely asymptomatic people are also infectious. Herpes infection also increases the likelihood of both catching and transmitting HIV by 80 per cent.

By Laurence Gibson in London and Edwin Bernard in Vienna