It seems that it’s not just the North Texas region that is seeing an increase HIV infections among mid-life men (35-49). According to this article, the increase could be explained by a number of reasons:
- having survived the HIV pandemic, urban gay men in mid-life may be particularly vulnerable to the negative effects of decimated social networks
- the methamphetamine epidemic that has swept through urban gay communities also contributes to high levels of new HIV infections
- gay men in mid-life are at the center of a ‘perfect storm,’ in which multiple problems converge to create a very high-risk environment
I couldn’t agree more with this comment from the article, “We urgently need to create programs that directly address the real reasons that gay men engage in high-risk behavior.” It’s not always just about remembering those we’ve lost to HIV/AIDS, but sometimes the fight has to intervene and prevent more losses.
Source: Gay News Blog