Gay and bisexual males are utilizing condoms lower than ever, and the decline has been significantly steep amongst those that are younger or Hispanic, in accordance with a brand new examine. The worrisome pattern factors to an pressing want for higher prevention methods because the nation struggles to beat the H.I.V. epidemic, researchers mentioned.
Over the previous decade, prevention medicine referred to as PrEP has helped gasoline a average drop in H.I.V. charges. And but, regardless of persistent public well being campaigns selling the medication, they haven’t been adopted in substantial numbers by Black and Hispanic males who’re homosexual or bisexual.
The use of condoms, which stop H.I.V. in addition to different sexually transmitted infections, has been declining throughout the board lately, not simply amongst homosexual males, contributing to an increase in sexually transmitted infections.
Researchers mentioned that, with a lot give attention to PrEP, public well being officers have ignored condoms, contributing to the drop-off of their use.
“The goal of promoting PrEP is a valuable one, but it has overshadowed other prevention strategies like condoms,” mentioned Steven Goodreau, an H.I.V. knowledgeable on the University of Washington. He led the brand new examine and co-wrote a associated editorial.
A spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention acknowledged declining condom use, however he mentioned the company continues to advertise them. Local well being departments that obtain federal cash for H.I.V. prevention should embody condom distribution of their methods, for instance.
H.I.V. charges have fallen lately thanks partly to PrEP. But the decline within the United States — 12 % from 2017 to 2021, in accordance with authorities estimates — has trailed many different rich Western nations and even some hard-hit African nations.
Gay and bisexual males are disproportionately affected: They make up simply 2 % of U.S. adults and 70 % of recent H.I.V. instances. And an infection charges are a lot larger in Black and Hispanic homosexual males than in white homosexual males.
In 2012, pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, debuted amid landmark analysis displaying that, when taken every day, antiretroviral medication practically remove the chance of contracting H.I.V.
