Or Mainstream Media (MSM).
It is the same thing.
Posted on 08/17/2006 12:55:54 AM PDT by Lorianne
TORONTO (Reuters) - AIDS is "spiraling out of control" in Asia among men who have sex with other men, activists warned on Tuesday -- and the epidemic is likely to spread because many of these men also marry or have sex with women.
And because the issue of homosexual sex is taboo in many Asian cultures, these men are difficult to identify and reach through public health campaigns, the American Foundation for AIDS Research, or AmFAR, and a group called TREAT Asia said in a joint report.
"Unless we address male to male sex and HIV risks and vulnerability, it is going to have a major impact on the general population because a lot of the people we work with are also married," said Shivandanda Khan of Naz Foundation International, a non-governmental organization that works with men who have sex with men (MSM) in India.
"In our culture it is also compulsory to get married. They have no choice," Khan told a news conference.
Many men who have sex with men are often married, the report said. For instance, 80 percent of men who admit to having sex with other men in China say they hare married or plan to get married.
And many of the men have dangerously false beliefs about sexual health, the report said. Up to half of the men in some areas have never used a condom, the report said.
"A lot of men in Asia believe that anal sex is safer than vaginal sex," Khan said in an interview.
While in Western countries gay groups have been active in fighting the AIDS epidemic, the "gay identity" is not dominant among Asian men who have sex with other men, the report said.
Because of that, the advocacy pioneered by gay communities in the Western world over the past 25 years does not work in Asia, where men who have sex with other men are "invisible" and difficult to identify, the report said.
"In Africa, Latin America, Asia the current rates of HIV infections among men who have sex with men are really spiraling out of control," said Kevin Frost, AmFAR's vice president for global initiatives.
"The truth is, we shouldn't be in this position. We really cannot afford to relearn the lessons of the past 25 years in many parts of the world, in the developing world, particularly around MSM issues."
Public health experts use the term "men who have sex with men," or MSM, because many of these men are not strictly homosexual or even bisexual. The report gives some examples of why from Asia.
For instance, it says, 65 percent of MSM in Nepal have regular sex with females, and 45 percent of male sex workers have sex with women as well as with men.
It said 22 percent of MSM in Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh city have sex with women as well as men.
this isn't pc, therefore its not true.
Safer? How can it be safer? Have any of these people heard of E. coli (for ex.)?!!! Ye gods!
That is closer to the truth. It would be such a breath of fresh air if they would just print the truth, instead of the watered-down version.
Such gross irony in this quote from the story: "The truth is, we shouldn't be in this position"
That is what we have been telling them all along. Stop the sick behavior and you won't spread AIDS.
Imagine that!
May explain Karr looking like he has Aids in Bangkok.
"The truth is, we shouldn't be in this position."
Just too easy
ping, to be used later today
Doesn't sound like he is trying to fight HIV/AIDS. Sounds more like he wants to promote acceptance of homosexuality. And you wonder why America is hated around the world.
Too many Asians as it is.
*SHRUG* If they want to die for a behavior, that's their choice. I can't say I'll miss them.
That's how this whole business got started, isn't it? What a bunch of maroons.
I know I can't wait to stick my tool in a pile of shiite.
Or Mainstream Media (MSM).
It is the same thing.
Asian men dying from having sex with each other. I'm reallying going to get busy worrying about this. Someday. Maybe.
They have sex with other men. But they are not gay.
Yeah, right.
MSM.... isn't that term often used on FR to refer to the Mainstream Media?
"these men are difficult to identify and reach through public health campaigns,"
If they are public health campaigns, then everyone sees them.
Except for the impact on children who are truly innocent, I couldn't care less if the entire 'mo population shriveled up and died from AIDS.
>>>BUT THEY ARE NOT GAY.<<<
NATALIE ARMSTRONG
REUTERS
TORONTO
if Anal Sex did not exist, HIV would not be nearly as bad as it is in the world today. tis the truth.
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