UK News

Men with HIV ‘having unsafe sex’

A third of gay men who know they are HIV positive are still having unprotected sex, a study suggests.

The Medical Research Council, which questioned 3,500 gay men, also found 40% of the 300 who tested positive for HIV did not know they were infected.

Dr Lisa Williamson said more sexual risks were taken by men who had been infected with HIV for a long time.

Will Nutland, from the HIV charity the Terence Higgins Trust, said a recent survey showed a third of gay men had been tested for HIV last year.

He said: “What we don’t necessarily want to see is an across the board increase in testing. We want to see gay men who are taking the greatest number of risks testing more often.

“Of course, on the face of it, it seems perfectly simple, but what we do know is that one-third of young gay men leave school without adequate safe sex information.

“We’re not equipping those people for their future sex lives and we’re not investing the way we that should be in HIV prevention campaigns across the whole of the UK in the communities who are most at risk.”

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