Just a quick alert…

There seems to be a pretty nasty staph infection going around which can be spread through sexual contact. They’re not calling it an STD since there are other ways of getting it – but they’re seeing quite a few cases of it being transmitted sexually. Anal sex seems to be one of the top ways it can spread, and one in 588 residents of the Castro have it. The latest form (a “flesh-eating” MRSA bacteria) seems to be highly resistent to treatment requiring surgical removal and IV antibiotics.

So, if you think you might possibly have it – go see a doctor! If you try to self-medicate yourself with antibiotics you can make the problem worse.

The other piece of advice in the articles was to take a shower after sex. Apparently the use of any type of soap will dramatically reduce your chances the MRSA bacteria taking hold.

For more information see the articles in The New York Times, and The San Francisco Chronicle.

UPDATE: This isn’t something you should be freaking out about – just be aware of it and deal with it quickly if you suspect you have it. For a good balanced perspective check out the post on LifeLube.

UPDATE #2: In stark contrast to the LifeLube article which points out that this staph infection is also a problem for athletes and members of the military, an article in The Free Republic sounds the alarm bell to watch out for gay people ’cause they’re spreading their diseases into the general population… Sex IS political. Never forget that…

UPDATE #3: The CDC has issued a statement putting things in perspective… Check it out.

UPDATE #4: The researchers have actually gone as far as apologizing for how the report was interpreted… (What a huge mess this has all been…)

The efforts to find an effective HIV vaccine haven’t been looking too good lately, but I just read an article about how researchers uncovered something that may be very helpful in creating a vaccine… Not that it’s going to happen tomorrow, but it’s better than nothing… And if nothing else, the knowledge from vaccine research helps create even more effective treatments for people who are poz…

While I’d still say if HIV infection is very likely for you, you may want to try to get the mildest strain you can. For the bulk of you who are likely to stay neg, try to stay that way as long as you can (without giving up the sex you enjoy)… I had a lover who died a year before protease inhibitors came out. If he had been been pozzed a year later he’d probably still be alive 13 years later.

I know I take risks, and I’m generally OK with them. I know an effective vaccine isn’t right around the corner and with my other medical issues I also know I can’t participate in a vaccine trial – so I won’t be one of the early ones to be vaccinated. Still, in the back of my mind I think about how it would be a bitch if I became poz and a vaccine came out a year later…

Next time you’re watching the hot Eastern European boys get fucked raw and take loads think about this…

The level of basic knowledge (within Europe) has been going down over last five years, while the myths and misunderstandings have been rising. One in five (adolescents) don’t know that it can be transmitted through sex without a condom. (Source: IPSNews.net)

On top of that the ones who do know condoms are effective are often too embarrassed to buy them… No wonder so much bareback porn is coming out of Eastern Europe…

I still don’t believe 2 or 3 guys got pozzed while filming “British Bareback Vacation” like some people are saying, but it does look like Eastern European bareback porn qualifies for the label “young, dumb, and full of cum”.

The other day I mentioned that HIV infection rates in NYC were down overall, but up for young gay men. Now the City has released the analysis of the causes of death for 2006 (PDF) and actual deaths from HIV are the lowest since 1984. In fact they went down a whopping 14.8% between 2005 and 2006. Given that we didn’t know HIV/AIDS existed until 1981 or 1982 – we’re basically at an all time low for HIV-related deaths.

For those of you who wonder why guys would “risk their lives” barebacking… The reason is simple – ’cause they don’t see people dying anymore. The generation before me was decimated, my generation saw some people die and a lot of others have serious problems (prior to 1996 when protease inhibitors came out). The generation after mine just never saw the sick or dying and they are the ones where HIV infections are on the rise.

Still, 1209 people died of HIV/AIDS in New York last year. I really wish the report told more about them. We know 34% of the deaths were black men; 21% black women; 11% white men; and 3% were white women. We know they were more likely to live in the Bronx (357 with a rate of 26.8 per 100,000) than in Manhattan (277, 18/100,000) or Brooklyn (363, 14.7/100,000). We know (luckily) that kids are no longer dying of it – just one death under the age of 15. We know the average age of people dying of AIDS is climbing (now up to 48.7 years for men). We know that in terms of “years of potential life lost” that both cancer and heart disease are each two and a half times the problem of HIV/AIDS. HIV/AIDS is on par with overdoses and murder in that regard.

But how long had they been poz? Did they have good insurance? Did they adhere to their cocktails? Did they take recreational drugs? Did they have other health complications? Were they gay, bisexual, IV drug users?

There are trends in the statistics that make me think actual deaths from HIV/AIDS are primarily hitting low-income communities of color. If the deaths aren’t predominantly in the gay community, it means AIDS-related deaths in the gay community really are at an all-time low and explains why the only group with an increasing rate of HIV infection is young gay men – they just aren’t seeing the problem, so they don’t see the need for a solution. It’s classic risk vs. reward behavior.

Outsiders always have the initial impression that New York is some sort of sex paradise, but the reality is actually quite different. The only way in which NY is good for sex is the sheer number and variety of guys we have here. It’s not hard to find someone to hookup with – unless you’re picky or something… And then there are private sex parties (more on that in a moment)…

The problem is there are laws on the books that prohibit sex in commercial establishments – PERIOD. No oral, anal or vaginal sex. It’s a bummer – you go to a J/O club and there are “monitors” running around saying “no lips below the hips”. And any bar with a back room doesn’t last long before it gets shut down… The bathhouses are lame – the saunas and steam rooms are usually closed (by order of the Health Department), and you can’t do anything in public areas and the rooms have signs on their doors saying “one person per room” (yeah right)…

So now there’s a report out by the NYC Department of Health that makes it seem like things may get even worse. According to the report the rates of syphilis and HIV infection are up (even though another study says NYC HIV infections are down overall) and so the Department of Health is trying to figure out how to control people’s sex lives to bring down new infections.

It’s the controlling people’s sex life part that bothers me the most. They’re trying to limit anonymous sex in particular and social norms that encourage/accept large numbers of sex partners. Needless to say that doesn’t sit well with me…

Now the curious part is their evaluation of where things stand and what they can do about it. They talk about how there are only 4 bathhouses in the City, and they respond pretty quickly when a bar or club gets a dark room… The bathhouses they’re worried about because they can’t legally enter the “private rooms” to observe what’s going on and they seem convinced that there’s stuff going on.

Yet the “problem” continues and the root of the problem, according to them, is private sex parties which are largely unregulated. Some of these are highly organized and function much like bathhouses. But there are a few problems enforcing the laws when it comes to private parties – first, the parties move around as soon as there’s a hint of a problem, and second the DOH inspectors don’t want to remove their clothes to get into the parties and to take any action they have to actually observe the sex act.

One of the funniest statements had to be

In two New York surveys, bathhouse users reported large numbers of sex partners per year (mean 26-29, median 11-12)

Having sex with one guy a month is considered a “large number of sex partners”? LOL… In the gay world that would amount to a single guy who’s not successful at dating (or hooking up)…

The end result is that they seem to desperately want to close all bathhouses and private sex parties or, at a minimum, turn them into San Francisco style bathhouses that have no private areas and are rigorously monitored for safe sex compliance. UGH!!!

It’s been a long time since I’ve gone to a bathhouse or a private party (the closest I’ve come were the informal gangbangs last year) – so this doesn’t directly affect me. Actually, it helps in a way ’cause the guys who would go to the clubs and parties need another outlet when they get closed – so they turn to regular hookups which gives me more guys to fuck…

Still, all this really bothers me. I guess you’d call me a libertarian on this one – I just don’t think it’s government’s job to interfere with our sex lives. I’m all for education and information, but not regulation… If I were trying to improve the situation I’d focus on an expansion of free HIV and STD testing… That seems like a helpful role for government.

Frankly, I wish every bar had a back room – maybe then guys would go out to the bars like they did “back in the day” and New York would be fun again…

There’s an article in the NY Times today about HIV infection rates in New York. In the five years 2001 to 2006 the overall rate of infection was down, the rate among men who have sex with men (MSM) over 30 years of age was down 22%, but the rate among MSM under 30 was up 32% (up 34% for blacks and hispanics).

They attribute the increase among young men to a number of things including drug abuse and a growing stigmatization of HIV among gay men which results in a “don’t ask, don’t tell” attitude about HIV status.

I’m too much of a control freak to have addiction issues – when I was young I didn’t like feeling out of control, I never really have done many drugs (just X a few times and pot a couple of times), and I don’t smoke. It’s rare for me to feel drunk, and prescription pain killers don’t really do much for me either… The point is I feel for these young guys with addiction issues, but can’t say I really understand what they’re going through. But obviously guys who do drugs are having a lot more ‘uninhibited’ sex than guys who don’t – it matters how many guys fuck you in a night…

The other curious thing is the whole “don’t ask, don’t tell” thing that’s going on. I’ve had bottoms who had ‘negative’ in their profile tell me they were poz and they had neg in their profile ’cause they had friends who knew which profile was theirs who they didn’t want to know about their being poz…

The article talks about how being poz is now related to reckless behavior, not seen as a tragedy like it it was in the past. Personally, I don’t think of it as either of those items – but that’s the topic for another post… I think we see some of the stigmatization in the vitriolic comments on this blog. And ironically the condom nazis are shooting themselves in the foot – by stigmatizing guys who bareback, they stop people talking about it (people just bareback without any discussion) and the HIV infection rate goes up. I don’t mean to say they’re solely responsible, but they do play a significant role…

The article also talks about a 20 year old kid who realized one day that he was the only person in his circle of about 20 guys who was still neg. That’s absolutely unreal to me and makes me think things like a drug culture really are at the heart of the issue.

The other thing I found really disturbing in the article was the whole idea that poz guys aren’t worthy of relationships. There was one guy who talked about the fact that after he found out he was poz (at the age of 23) guys would hook up with him and maybe go on what he called a “pity date” with him, but no one seriously considered him as boyfriend material. Guys – that’s fucked up… First off, why is it that poz guys aren’t dating poz guys? And why is it that sluts aren’t seen as potential boyfriends? I mean Dawson has a boyfriend… This whole “be like straight people”, “be monogamous” shit is really counter productive. I just do hookups because I’ve got a boyfriend – but long-term relationships are important.

Take a moment, read the article and think about the issues it raises…