By Tan Ee Lyn MEXICO CITY, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Younger men who binge drink and abuse drugs are the gays and bisexuals most likely to transmit HIV to others, and prevention programs should be developed to target them, U.S. researchers said on Thursday. The study, presented at an international AIDS meeting in Mexico City, also helps explain why the AIDS epidemic is starting to grow again among U.S. homosexuals. "When one drinks or uses other substances, inhibitions are lowered, making people more likely to engage in risky behavior like unprotected sex. This is particularly true for young people, who often take risks without thinking about the consequences," said Dr. Kenneth Mayer, an infectious disease specialist at Brown University in Rhode Island. Gay and bisexual men account for about half of all new HIV infections in the United States. The researchers studied 200 HIV-positive gay and bisexual men in the United States. They found that 57 percent were getting treatment and half met the criteria of "high-risk HIV transmitter," defined as having engaged in unprotected anal intercourse over the last six months with partners who were either HIV positive or whose HIV status was not known. Three-quarters of the men were white and more than half were college-educated. Nearly a quarter of the men said they had consumed five or more alcoholic drinks in a day at least once in the previous three months and 65 percent used drugs such as methamphetamine. About 12 percent had been diagnosed with a sexually transmitted infection within the past year, according to the study. (Editing by Patricia Zengerle)
Activists hold mock packages of Kaletra, and AIDS medication, during a demonstration at The XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City, August 6, 2008. The AIDS Conference will run from August ...
