The most recent evidence concludes young men who have sex with men (YMSM) “aged 13 to 24 accounted for an estimated 92% of new HIV diagnoses among all men in their age group and 27% of new diagnoses among all gay and bisexual men” (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2016, para. 3). Thus, suggests intervention for the YMSM population is vital to reversing this negative trend. Early recognition of this trend caught the attention of Dr. Kegeles and Dr. Hays from the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies, at the University of California, San Francisco. Together they developed an “HIV prevention methodology that reformed the social environment of people at risk for HIV/AIDS, as well as focused on individual and interpersonal-level issues …show more content…
Social and Behavioral Risk Factors
Meetings are held at a minimum of every two weeks, yet most host more. These meetings are designed to address the social and behavioral risk factors associated with HIV vulnerability. The factors focused on during these meetings include:
• Individual factors – invulnerability, complacency, lack of fear of HIV, and a reluctance to discuss HIV with sexual partners.
• Interpersonal factors – little to no skill talking to partners about safe sex, reluctance to insist, lack of experience leads to inaccurate assumptions about the HIV status of others, and lack of self-esteem.
• Cultural factors – conflicts between one’s sexual orientation and cultural norms, outside pressures, which decrease one’s ability to consistently engage in safe sex, discomfort maneuvering mainstream gay communities, fear of testing, and lack of prevention services.
• Community/structural factors – social scenes/environments that are non-conducive to safe sex (alcohol, drugs, casual hook-ups, Internet/applications (Craigslist, Grindr, Men4SexNow, etc.).
• Biomedical factors – having sex with someone who is HIV-positive, lack of knowledge about viral loads and its significance (low viral load less infectious than a high viral load), extreme risk when having sex with someone newly infected (intentional or unintentional), and the importance of testing because it aids in protecting community health (Mpowerment Project, 2016).
In addition to small group
The individuals that participated for this study used a format that was more of an open-response type report during a 4 months period time frame. We used: male and female sexual partners, they had to account how many times they times they had unprotected vaginal sex (e.g., not using a condoms), they also had to answer how many time they had unprotected vaginal and anal sex, with either a mates that was in jail, prison or normal every day citizen. They also had to answer if any form of alcohol or drugs where used before or after sexual contact, and the total number of partners (different partners) they were engage with.
Culture plays a big role in HIV in the Latino community. Mexican ancestry were more skeptical about the government and their information about HIV, so they believed that HIv can be transmitted through casual contact. Because of their culture stigma, fear, discrimination, and homophobia are reasons why many Hispanic/Latino people try to ignore the fact that they have HIV. Since, being a homosexual is like a taboo in Latino culture people fear to let anyone know that they have HIV if they got it during male-to-male sexual contact. They are other factors that lead to many Latinos to not get HIV testing and care and they are Poverty, lower education levels, and language barriers, lack of healthcare access and insurance, and mistrust of healthcare system. Social isolation and displacement, which increases the risk of sexual abuse and rape, which also increases sexual HIV exposure The cost
I am talking about women of color, so gender and race play an important role. In society, black women are stereotyped as having the highest cases of HIV because they live in poverty, lack education and ignore awareness of
Poverty, lower education, language barriers and access to health care are all factors that contribute to this population being at a high risk of contracting the disease and to be infected and not be aware of it. Hispanics are among the lower tested for HIV in the United States and this is because there is a misconception that when the go see their doctor, they are automatically tested for it. The language barrier affects their ability to speak clearly with their providers and to receive education about the disease and how to prevent it. Access to health care is another huge factor, because most Hispanics live in poverty they are not insured and therefore do not have access to decent health care, which could provide them with the education that they need. Those who are a little more educated and find a clinic they could go to do not go because of the stigma associated with it, in some areas HIV clinics have names such as “Clinical Immunology” and “AIDS team” these are not places that Hispanics want to be seen walking into for fear of being judged by their family and friends (Moran, 2007).
Other influences such as the economy factor into the transmission of aids. Women who are unmarried and have kids use sexual relations to support themselves and their children and without other help, they rely on it as a means of
To decrease or alleviate the HIV epidemic among young African American (MSM) there are three strategies that should be implemented among this population of young men. First, the health disparities among this population should be identified. Secondly, HIV stigmas and barriers that prevent young African
Today 's casual sex culture and sexual risk may consist of adverse outcomes, as well as, emotional and psychological harm, sexually transmitted infections, sexual violence, and unintended pregnancy, despite the ubiquity of certain positive feelings.
Poverty, healthcare access, and risk taking behaviors are all among the answer. One in 4 African-American women lives in poverty, and people living in poverty also get lower-quality health care in general. Exchanging sex for drugs, money, or to meet other needs causes the increase HIV risk factors. For woman living in poverty with low quality health care gives the HIV infection to advance into AIDS more quickly. HIV is mostly spread to women through sexual contact. Untreated STDs that break the skin, like genital herpes, give HIV an access into the bloodstream. 23% of African American women were infected with HIV by injection drug use. Being under the influence of any substance can cause woman to have high risk behaviors such as unprotected sex and sharing of injection drug paraphernalia.
Many individuals are afraid to get tested for HIV and are afraid of the stigma associated with HIV when disclosing their status to partners. They are often subject to their own psychological and other social stress which often hinders appropriate management of the infection. This is not always without reason as disclosure of an HIV status can lead to exclusion from ones family, friend-circle or dismissal from the workplace. However disclose to a family member, partner or friend can provide psychological and later physical support. Also the fear of individuals they love finding out that they are HIV positive may lead to anxiety or isolation. Non-disclosure can often affect healthcare and management of the persons’ disease as the fear of dependents finding out will require the individual to hide taking the medication and use personal funds to pay for treatment to avoid the medical insurance company from informing co-dependants (Alonzo & Renolds 1995).
According to recent statistics from the Centers for Disease Control, approximately 1.2 million individuals in the United States have HIV (about 14 percent of which are unaware of their infection and another 1.1 million have progressed to AIDS. Over the past decade, the number of HIV cases in the US has increased, however, the annual number of cases remains stable at about 50, 000 new cases per year. Within these estimates, certain groups tend to carry the burden of these disease, particularly the gay, bisexual, and men who have sex with men (MSM) and among race/ethnic groups, Blacks/African American males remain disproportionately affected. (CDC)
Since then, HIV has gained a larger host population, with most transmissions occurring due to unprotected sex, although a smaller percentage of transmissions occur due to unsafe drug use. Several factors have caused HIV to continue to exist in the population. One factor is stigmatism towards the disease. An article by Ronald Valdiserri (2002) discussed a study done in the 1990s and early 2000s about people’s perception of HIV and HIV screening. The article concluded that about one fifth of the general population either feared individuals with HIV or believed that those who got infected got what they deserved (p. 341-342). This stigmatism has caused individuals to be wary and reluctant to go get tested. Thus infected
In the last three decades HIV/ AIDS has become the one of the most notorious and widely spread diseases in the modern world. Its discovery in the late seventies prompted worldwide concern. The one thing that has become the most bothersome thing about the HIV/ AIDS epidemic is prevention. Prevention or stopping the transmission of the diseases is hindered by factors such as: denial or non-acceptance by infected persons, unsafe sex, and non-disclosure by infected persons to their at risk sexual partner(s). According to Alghazo, Upton, and Cioe (2011):
An individual's risk for HIV or social determinants of health related to HIV is income, education, geographic region, poverty, gender orientation, early childhood experiences, and alcohol or substance abuse. The CDC
HIV continues to be a disease that causes challenges to community health and health care providers around the world. There are more than 1.1 million people living with HIV in the United States (US0 and approximately 50,000 individuals become infected annually (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Staff [CDC Staff], 2014). HIV infections continue to rise despite the use of highly active antiretroviral therapies (ART). This may be because of some individuals engaging in riskier sexual practices. Some claim the reason individuals engage in these risky practices is because of an increased optimism related to current HIV treatments and “prevention fatigue (Mayer et al., 2004).
Amongst the population, gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men of all races and ethnicities remain to be the most effected by HIV (CDC, 2016). According to more data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as of February 2013, “gay men are sixty times more likely than heterosexual men, and 54 times more likely than all women, to be diagnosed with HIV. Gay men account for 48 percent of the more than one million people living with HIV in the U.S., an estimated 532,000 men” (Andriote 2012). In comparison to heterosexual men, gay and bisexual men are 79 times more likely to be diagnosed with HIV in their lifetime (CDC, 2016). They continue to say that if current HIV diagnosis rates continue, 1 in 6 men who have sex with men (MSM) will be diagnosed with HIV in their lifetime. Heterosexual men face a