HIV rates in gay people could be high – CNLS

The Executive Secretary of the National Aids Control Commission, Dr. Anita Asiimwe yesterday, reacted to a recent global report on the high prevalence of HIV among gay men in Africa, citing that it could be true. According to the Lancet, a world leading medical journal, HIV rates among gay men in some African countries are 10 times higher than those among the general male population. “Rwanda just like other countries is a part of the world. It is not an island and when global reports like these come up then they are acceptable.” “It is known that in each country, a certain percentage of the population could be attracted to the same sex so HIV rates among men having sex with men could be indeed higher,” Asiimwe said. In a special programme that was broadcast by the journal’s website on 20 July, Dr. Stefan Baral, from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health explained that in Africa, there is no sex education for gay men and lesbians about prevention from the epidemic. “They are excluded from national surveillance programmes, not given sexual health education on self protection when engaging in these practices and there are no condoms availed.” “Except for Kenya and Zambia, other countries do not at all offer such. In Latin America however the high risk group is that of the sex workers. A global response with local leadership is necessary,” Baral says. The journal also strongly emphasises that isolation and harassment of gay men in turn leads to risky sexual behaviours citing Senegal as one of the countries which intimidates gay men. In relation to considering the gay community as a focus group for data collection on HIV prevalence in Rwanda, Dr. Asiimwe added that a study has been done in Kigali city on gay people. “Preliminary results show that there are some who are engaged in this practice but we have not studied the HIV transmission rate among them. This year we planned to look at HIV prevalence among sex workers as it is a high risk group. Soon we will check the gay community too,” she affirmed. Other researchers attest that gay men are likely to be involved in high-risk behaviours such as having multiple partners, using drugs and engaging in sex work thus contracting and HIV/Aids. Ends