HIV Prevention Conference Talks

posted: 11/04/2011

The presentations, from all the speakers at the national CHAPS gay and other men who have sex with men’s (MSM) HIV prevention conference, are now available online. This CHAPS conference was held in Manchester, in March.

The full programme here tells you who the speakers were and more about each talk  
 

Here’s what’s available - the presentations are PowerPoint files. 

If you need a programme to view PowerPoint presentations download the PowerPoint Viewer programme here 
 

Session 1

• Work with prisons
• Advice services for PLHIV
• Advice services for PLHIV 2
• HIV prevention with the over 50s
• Asian MSM
• Sexual health services in the community
• Online initiatives
• Online initiatives 2 - social media
   

Session 2 

• The role of fear in HIV prevention
• Re-engaging the community
• South London HIV Prevention (SLHP) model of HIV prevention 1
• SLHP model of HIV prevention 2
• SLHP model of HIV prevention 3
• SLHP model of HIV prevention 4
• SLHP model of HIV prevention 5
• SLHP model of HIV prevention 6
• European MSM Internet Sex Survey (EMIS)
• Treatment as prevention 1
• Treatment as prevention 2

 Session 3 

• Targeted working
• Transmen 1
• Transmen 2
• Sex workers 1
• Sex workers 2
• Blood donations
• Partner numbers and patterns

Session 4 

• Undiagnosed infection - partner notification
• Undiagnosed infection - MSM
• National LGB Drugs and Alcohol Database
• The role of fear in HIV prevention
• Sexual orientation monitoring
• European MSM Internet Sex Survey - Differences in STI testing
• The changing sexual behaviours of MSM

Session 5 

• Measuring outcomes 1
• Measuring outcomes 2
• Measuring outcomes 3
• Treatment as prevention 1
• Treatment as prevention 2
• Just gay men?
• Condom and lube distribution 1
• Condom and lube distribution 2
• Pornography and gay men's attitudes towards sex, risk and pleasure
• Telling partners about HIV status 1
• Telling partners about HIV status 2

Session 6 

• Re-engaging the community
• HIV and ageing
• Young people and homophobia
• Crystal Meth
• Testing times 1
• Testing times 2

Euro Gay HIV Prevention Conference

posted: 11/04/2011

The Swedish Institute for Communicable Disease Control is holding a European HIV Prevention for men who have sex with men conference. Men, Men Sex and HIV will be on Thursday 10th and Friday 11th November 2011, in Stockholm, Sweden.
The conference is for

• Government organisations (involved in healthcare, disease control and prevention)
• Other organisations targeting MSM
• Researchers

They want the conference to deal with the rise in HIV and the other sexually transmitted infections (STI) among MSM.

Fresh evidence-based methods of prevention are needed along with more activity to cut HIV and STI transmissions and to develop ‘Second Generation Surveillance’. [Second Generation Surveillance means regular, systematic collection, analysis and interpretation of information for tracking and describing changes in the HIV epidemic over time. It includes gathering information on risk behaviours, and using these to warn about and explain changes in levels of HIV infection].
 

The conference will also help bridge the gap between Western and Eastern European HIV and STI prevention work, by sharing lessons, best practice and research.

They also want the conference to involve commercial and other businesses which can contribute to gay men’s prevention such as bars and clubs and profile websites.
 

Subjects and themes

• Understanding the epidemic
• Vulnerability and social determinants
• Response, Prevention, Intervention and Performance/Outcomes
• Positive Sex and Prevention
• European regional differences
• Co-operation between sectors (academic/governmental/civil society/private and commercial)
• Sustainability
• Empowerment - healthy choices
• Innovative approaches

Conference website

Messaging Gay Men About STIs

posted: 07/04/2011

Manchester gay and bi men using the Royal Infirmary's Hathersage Clinic (along with men using STI clinics in Sheffield, Brighton and at four London STI clinics) now have a new way to warn partners they may have been in contact with a sexually transmitted infection.

The Sexual Health Messaging Service has just begun, launched by GMFA, the gay men’s health charity, and is linked in with the popular gay profile sites Fitlads, Gaydar, Manhunt and Recon, and the cruising app Bender.

Men need to Opt-in for notifications  if they get an invitation, for it to work.

It's funded by the Elton John AIDS Foundation and aims to help cut the number of men with undiagnosed STIs, including HIV. Men who are diagnosed with an STI can tell previous sexual partners by using an online system (anonymously if prefered), so the partners can go and get tested and, if necessary, treated.
 

99% want to know about any STIs

Over a quarter of gay men with HIV do not know they have HIV. GMFA’s study shows that the vast majority of gay men (99.3%) want to be told if any sexual partner gets an STI and 97.5% want to be told if this is HIV.
 

Matthew Hodson of GMFA, commented: “Many STIs don’t show any symptoms, so lots of men may be infected and not know it. While it’s best to tell men you’ve had sex with if you find out you’ve picked up an STI, making that awkward phone call or sending an email can be difficult. As a result, some men choose not to tell, even though they know they should. We’ve made the process as easy as possible by doing most of the work for you – all you need is a contact for your partners and we’ll take care of the rest.”
 

An easy (even anonymous) way to tell

Existing ways of telling partners often require anyone who is diagnosed with an STI to contact their partners direct, sometimes using a pink slip issued by the clinic. GMFA’s research shows these systems often don’t work.

For all kinds of reasons some men can't or won't notify sexual partners. Of the men who do tell partners about having an STI or HIV, only 65% told all their partners. Here's some of the difficulties and reasons for this

• not having partners’ contact details (sometimes only a first name, or only a profile name)
• embarrassment
• not wanting the partner to know about their having an STI or HIV 
• not wanting to see the guy again.

Now men using the Hathersage in Manchester, men in Brighton, Sheffield and parts of London can use GMFA’s new Sexual Health Messaging Service. It  will then be spread across the rest of London later this year and then the rest of the country next year. 

The GMFA service means clinics give men a unique reference number so they can log in to the online system and send notifications using a number of contact methods, including

• website profile name
• cruising app profile name
• mobile 
• email.

The message is automatically written and contains links to where their partners can go for testing. While men are encouraged to say who they are, it can be kept anonymous.

The service started its six-month pilot on Monday. The clinics taking part are

• In Manchester, the Hathersage Centre (Upper Brook Street / Hathersage Road corner) 
• In Sheffield, the Royal Hallamshire Hospital
• Brighton, Claude Nicol Centre at Royal Sussex County Hospital
• 56 Dean Street, Soho, London,
• Homerton University Hospital, London
• The Lloyd Clinic at Guy’s Hospital, London
• St Bartholemew’s Hospital, London 

Men can use the service to send messages to partners met through the four participating gay dating websites (Fitlads, Gaydar, Manhunt and Recon) and the cruising app, Bender.

Opt-in to take part 

Profile site members need to opt-in to receive notifications if and when they are sent an invite.
 

Matthew of GMFA tells us: “This is a major project and marks a huge shift in the way men can notify their partners about STIs they’ve picked up. By making the process easy, we hope to make more men aware of any STIs they may have and ultimately reduce the number of STI infections in the community.”

Guides for More HIV Testing

posted: 04/04/2011

The number of people who got infected with HIV within the UK in the last 10 years has almost doubled. New infections that happened in the UK (rather than abroad) rose from 1,950 in 2001 to 3,780 in 2010.

In response the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE, the body that tells the NHS what healthcare works and is good value for money) has issued new guidance for the testing of the two groups most at risk of getting HIV in the UK, gay/bi men and African people.

HIV testing helps people keep good health

Testing and treating people with HIV helps the person with HIV stay healthy and to live a near-normal life, helps avoid passing on HIV to others, and can save the NHS a lot of money.
 

The NICE guidance aims to increase the numbers taking HIV tests to reduce the number of people who do not know they have HIV and so help prevent HIV being passed on by Africans living in the UK and gay men.

Gay and bisexual men remain the group most at risk of becoming infected with HIV in the UK with 70 per cent more men being diagnosed with HIV in the past 10 years (from 1,810 in 2001 to 3,080 in 2010).
 

‘NAT welcomes the new NICE guidance on increasing testing among African communities and gay men. Not only is the number of people being diagnosed with HIV still too high, late diagnosis is an extremely important problem as it means a person is likely to have had HIV for a number of years – with a high risk of transmission to sexual partners – and it can also reduce the effectiveness of treatment,” commented Deborah Jack, Chief Executive of NAT (National AIDS Trust).

‘It is crucial that HIV testing becomes ‘normalised’ in our society, not just among gay men and African communities, but also amongst health professionals. Many people with HIV attend NHS services for years without being offered an HIV test and this neglect needs to be addressed and stopped.’

'The importance of HIV testing should now be reflected in Government plans as they reorganise the NHS and public health. In particular, it is essential that HIV late diagnosis remain a key outcome indicator to assess progress in public health at the local level. It is also vital that the extensive reorganisation of the NHS does not undermine recent momentum in HIV testing.’
 

‘Public Health England must ensure that the vision for HIV testing amongst gay men and African communities set out in the NICE Guidance is consistently implemented across the whole of the NHS and public health system.’
 

NICE HIV testing guidance for gay/bi men

NICE testing guidance for Africans living in the UK

Source – HPA press release

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Hepatitis C Twice for HIV+ Gay Men

posted: 16/03/2011

Just over one-quarter of gay men with HIV cured of early stage hepatitis C in Amsterdam got it again within two years. The men got hepatitis C from different people the second time.
 

10 times more reinfection – better prevention needed
The hepatitis C reinfection rate among these Amsterdam HIV positive men is ten times higher than the rate they of first hepatitis C infection among men with HIV.
 

It is clear that much better health promotion work is needed if men are to avoid reinfection with hepatitis C.
 

Sexually transmission of hepatitis C among gay and bisexual men happens widely especially in cities like Manchester, Brighton, London, Amsterdam, Berlin, as well as in North America and Australia.
 

Sex risks and networks
Various explanations have been offered for the greater vulnerability of men with HIV infection, including chosing sexual partners who also have HIV (called sero-sorting), and networks of sexual partners where many of the men have HIV. However it is the sexual and drug-using practices which affects who gets hepatitis C.
 

Heptatitis C reinfection
Researchers from Amsterdam Academic Medical Centre and the Amsterdam Public Health Service reported HIV+ men reinfected after being successfully treated for hepatitis C.
Twenty-eight men were successfully treated. Two men relapsed and hepatitis C reappeared within two months of the end of their hepatitis C treatment. Of the remaining 26 men, 7 were reinfected within two years, an incidence of 19.6 per 100 person years of follow-up. The time to reinfection was typically one year but could be much sooner.
 

Different type of hepatitis C
In every man reinfected they had a different genetic version of hepatitis C - three who first had genotype 4 then got genotype 1, while two men who started with genotype 1 get genotype 4 the second time. One man got genotype 1 again but even this was from a different clade, a different subtype.
 

Better prevention
The researchers say that discussion about prevention measures needs to take place not only at the time of diagnosis, but during and after treatment.
In particular men need to understand all the possible sexual and drug sharing transmission routes, and must to feel free to have frank discussions with doctors about sexual practices, drug-using behaviour and other risk factors. Too many HIV positive men with hepatitis C feel unable to talk freely because they feel judged, shamed and blamed by their HIV clinic.
 

Keep testing
Regular HCV testing in previously-treated individuals is also essential. We reported recently that while around 8% of gay and bi men with HIV in the UK have hepatitis C, one quarter of positive gay men were not checked for this in 2008, when every person with HIV should be checked at least once a year.

A German study showed similar reinfection among HIV-positive men. 22% became reinfected within six years, despite the number of first hepatitis C infections in Germany falling. 

Treatment of acute hepatitis C infection with pegylated interferon and ribavirin prevents early HIV infection progressing to chronic infection, which is harder to treat in HIV-positive people.
European guidelines on treatment of acute hepatitis C infection note that HIV-positive patients have a good response rate to treatment begun within a year of infection.

Source  with reference