Gay Men's Information Session - Treatments (with iBase) - Monday 24th October

posted: 14/10/2011

Gay Men's Information Session - Treatments (with iBase) - Monday 24th October 6pm-8pm (doors open 5:45pm)

HIV i-Base is a treatment activist group, HIV-positive led and committed to providing timely HIV treatment information to HIV-positive people and to health care professionals. We are very fortunate to have Simon Collins join our first Gay Men's Information Session.

A fantastic opportunity to have your treatment questions answered. The session is open to any HIV positive gay man known to George House Trust, you do not have to be on treatments to attend. You are expected to have an interest in treatments and to participate in the session if you attend.

If you know of any other gay men, friends, partners or acquaintances that are also HIV positive and might be interested in attending, but have not been to George House Trust before then please get them to call 0161 274 4499 to arrange an adviser appointment first.

This is the first information session exclusively for gay men and part of regular monthly information sessions to be held on the 4th Monday of each month.

Gay Men's Information Session - Treatments (with iBase) - Monday 24th October

posted: 14/10/2011

Gay Men's Information Session - Treatments (with iBase) - Monday 24th October 6pm-8pm (doors open 5:45pm)

HIV i-Base is a treatment activist group, HIV-positive led and committed to providing timely HIV treatment information to HIV-positive people and to health care professionals. We are very fortunate to have Simon Collins join our first Gay Men's Information Session.

A fantastic opportunity to have your treatment questions answered. The session is open to any HIV positive gay man known to George House Trust, you do not have to be on treatments to attend. You are expected to have an interest in treatments and to participate in the session if you attend.

If you know of any other gay men, friends, partners or acquaintances that are also HIV positive and might be interested in attending, but have not been to George House Trust before then please get them to call 0161 274 4499 to arrange an adviser appointment first.

This is the first information session exclusively for gay men and part of regular monthly information sessions to be held on the 4th Monday of each month.

Gay Men's Space Summer BBQ - 13th July 2009

posted: 12/06/2009

The summer BBQ event!

Held at the regular Gay Men's Space at George House Trust from 5pm to 8pm.

Free BBQ food and soft drinks. A social opportunity to meet up with other HIV positive gay men in a relaxed and friendly environment. Open to any HIV positive gay man living in the North West.

If you are not already known to George House Trust and would like to attend then please contact Dunkan on 0161 274 4499 or email dunkan@ght.org.uk beforehand.

See you there!
 

HIV+ Gay Men and Hep C International

posted: 09/03/2009

After the shock last year that almost 1 in 5 gay men living with HIV in Amsterdam also has hepatitis C, which is spreading rapidly, several posters at the CROI Conference in Montreal, Canada, examined the rise in sexually transmitted hepatitis C in gay men with HIV.

Each study highlighted different aspects of this new epidemic. Risk behaviour was compared between New York and the UK; in France there is a parallel hepatitis C epidemic of a different genotype; New York investigators documented rapid progression of liver fibrosis in their patients, and also treatment success rates.

British gay men with HIV seem to be taking many more risks than men in New York.

Amsterdam
The Amsterdam study presented at CROI  looked for acute HCV infection. It found 46 gay men with acute HCV infection between 2003 and August 2008 among 1380 gay male HIV-positive patients treated at just one hospital.

It found that although acute cases were not as common as in the earlier Amsterdam study, they were increasing very rapidly. There were two in 2003, one in 2004, nine in 2005, twelve in 2006, six in 2007 and 14 in the first eight months of 2008 (equivalent to a 2008 incidence of 1.5% a year). Fifty-nine per cent of patients, based on previous negative HCV tests, had had HCV infection for less than a year. Three-quarters of patients had genotype 1. None of the patients had classic risk factors such as injecting drug use or medical exposure to infected blood.

France
The French researchers did a national screen for acute hep C infection. They looked through the records of HIV-positive gay men in 115 clinics. They found 94 cases of acute hepatitis C infection.

The men investigated were aged 40 on average and had had HIV for ten years. Twenty two (62.5%) had undetectable HIV viral loads and over half had a CD4 count over 500.

2 out of 3 men had an STI diagnosed at the same time as HCV, and more than half of these were of syphilis. Having another STI was one of the largest risk factors for HCV. Other significant risks included unprotected anal sex and either surgery or endoscopy. Only five patients cited fisting, often suspected of spreading HCV, as a risk factor.

The researchers found that about half the French men with hep C have the relatively uncommon type of hep C - genotype 4d. The virological evidence is of large connected networks of gay men with hepatitis C.

New York

Sexually transmitted hepatitis C among HIV-positive gay men in America has lagged a few years behind the outbreaks in Europe, but has now established itself in New York. Two studies looked at the New York outbreak.

This team, led by Daniel Fierer, has previously documented alarmingly rapid liver fibrosis (scarring) in HIV-positive men who become infected with HCV, and a further study has confirmed this. Among 24 HIV-positive gay men who agreed to a liver biopsy, one had stage 3 fibrosis (one step short of cirrhosis), 18 had stage 2 fibrosis, three had stage 1, and two had none.

The profile of the men was very similar to the French men; they were 40 years old on average and their median CD4 count was 525. Three-quarters were on antiretrovirals of whom 94%, 64% of the total, had an undetectable viral load. The average time since HIV diagnosis was seven years.

Four patients (13%) spontaneously cleared hep C infection. All the others were offered pegylated interferon and ribavirin treatment. Of these 41, half chose to delay or refused treatment. Of the other 21, six are still awaiting treatment; of the 15 treated, eight achieved a sustained viral response, equivalent to a cure. Two failed treatment. The others are still being treated or evaluated.

Twenty-one men were matched with similar HCV-negative men to look at risk factors. The only factors that reached significance were unprotected receptive anal sex, with or without ejaculation, unprotected oral sex with ejaculation, use of sex toys, and ‘sex while high’. Again, fisting was not a significant risk factor but there was an interesting difference between receptive fisting, which was not a risk factor at all, and insertive fisting (the ‘top’), which was of borderline significance (p=0.07).

Hepatitis C and HIV+ gay men in the UK
Another New York study compared the New York and UK outbreaks and looked at differences in the risk behaviours between 21 HCV/HIV-positive gay men (not the same cases as in the first study) and 60 UK cases previously reported by the HIV and Acute HCV Group.

UK gay men living with HIV take many more risks than those in New York.

UK patients were somewhat younger (average 36 versus 40) and had had HIV for less time (3.7 versus eight years), though their CD4 counts were the same, and a higher proportion of UK patients had undetectable HIV viral loads (59% versus 48%).

New York patients were more likely to have ever injected drugs (24% versus 3%), and were more likely to have shared injecting equipment (15% versus 1.7%) or shared crack pipes.

Brits Push the Risk Limits

Apart from those factors, the UK patients had the lion’s share of risky behaviours. Just to take a few:

• 73% of UK patients had been fisting ‘tops’ and 57% ‘bottoms’ compared with 33% and 24% of New York men;
• 67% of UK men had practised fisting in a group compared with 12% of the New Yorkers;
• 94% had had unprotected receptive anal sex in a group situation compared with 77% of the New York men
• UK men had also used far more non-injectable recreational drugs: 80% versus 24% had used ketamine, 77% versus 38% cocaine, and 80% versus 38% had used ecstasy.
• A third had used LSD compared with none of the Americans. The greater use of drugs in the UK was called a “notable finding” by the researchers although, perhaps surprisingly, they did not look at the high levels of methamphetamine use in the USA
• The UK men also had higher rates of STIs, with 85% having had a lifetime history of STIs compared with 38% of the Americans. All these differences were highly statistically significant.

Lastly, another US study found that only a minority of HIV-positive gay men are being screened for viral hepatitis of any kind in US HIV clinics. The study of eight clinics found only 43% of men were tested for hepatitis A, 33% for hepatitis B, and 48% for hepatitis C. Practice varied but was “suboptimal” at all clinics, the researchers comment.

HIV & Hepatitis leaflet from NAM

Hep C information from i_Base

Source and References
 

Gaydar Group for Men with HIV

posted: 03/02/2009

Terrence Higgins Trust and Gaydar now offer an online support group for gay men living with HIV. THT staff will be in Gaydar’s ‘THT HIV+ Groupwork’ chatroom from 5.30 to 8.30pm three evenings a week, on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday until the end of March. From April it is likely to be staffed two evenings a week.

The online group means men can talk online to other men with HIV, share experiences of life with HIV, get support and answers to questions around HIV or sexual health. If there is no convenient support group for HIV+ gay men in your local area, this could be a very useful way to meet and talk with other positive gay men, and to get answers from THT staff to your questions.

THT staff offer confidential, non-judgemental support and information on HIV. As well as chatting publicly, men will be able to send private messages, as usual, but also to the THT workers, for specific information, advice and help.

Online support useful for HIV positive men from Burnley and Blackburn, to Birkenhead, Buxton and Buttermere

We think it could be very helpful for gay HIV+ men who live outside easy reach of HIV+ gay men's support groups, such as for men from Burnley and Blackburn, to Birkenhead, Buxton and Buttermere. Although the group is aimed at gay men in London, men from NorthWest England are welcome to use this for support from other positive gay men, or from the THT staff. We have confirmed this with Gordon at THT who runs the group.

Like everything on gaydar you first need to register and log in, and then go to the 'THT HIV+ Groupwork’ chatroom. THT staff are there on the evenings and times above but also post messages in some other groups to say they are there working, such as London cruising rooms and the group sex room, but THT don't leave messages in Manchester or other regional rooms.

Men should be aware that no-one (including you) is screened to check their HIV status before they enter the chatroom. And anything you say that is not in a private message to another person, is not really private. But like most chatrooms it can be a really good way to find expert answers, make new friends, and ask for and give support and advice from others in the same sort of situation.

Gordon Mundie, who runs groupwork at THT said "Online groupwork could be useful to anyone with HIV whether they're newly diagnosed or have lived with it for years. It gives men the opportunity to have an anonymous chat with people in a similar situation, or ask questions about anything from HIV treatment to sex. If you're interested, pop in and join the conversation."

Simon Johnson, Marketing Manager at Gaydar said "We hope that members of Gaydar will use the new online THT HIV+ Groupwork service, it's the first of its kind. We know Gay men are more likely to talk openly and seek advice online, and this service helps facilitate just that."

George House Trust offers services for gay men living with HIV across NorthWest England. To find out how we can help, call our services team on 0161 274 4499 or email support@ght.org.uk or visit www.ght.org.uk

Gaydar