http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1608/is_9_17/ai_80309798/
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Men’s Fitness
While gay men account for about 42 percent of the estimated 40,000 new U.S. HIV infections each year, a study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicates that many nongay Americans are unaware of the HIV status of their sexual partners and their own chances of contracting the virus.
“High-risk heterosexual adults may not perceive themselves to be at risk for HIV and are therefore unlikely to seek testing,” says the study’s lead author R. Monina Klevens, D.D.S., of the National Center for HIV, STD and TB Prevention.
The vast majority of the world’s approximately 60 million AIDS cases have been caused by heterosexual contact, but such transmissions have been relatively unusual in the United States. However, the percentage of Americans who acquired AIDS through heterosexual contact has grown from about 2 percent in 1985 to between 10 percent and 15 percent currently. And a growing percentage of those diagnoses can be traced to “secondary transmission,” in which the HIV-infected partner was also infected heterosexually, rather than through a “primary risk factor” such as injection drug use or homosexual contact.
The CDC study, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, involved 581 participants. It found a large discrepancy between those who knew their partner engaged in primary risk behavior (nearly 80 percent) and awareness of that partner’s HIV status (35 percent of the men, 56 percent of the women).
“Heterosexuals with multiple sexual partners should be aware of their risk and should be encouraged to know their HIV status,” says Klevens, who called for larger follow-up studies. About one-third of the HIV-positive population in the United States is undiagnosed, reports the CDC.
People continue to be confused about their level of sexual risk, according to the HIV/AIDS Resource Center of the American Medical Association. Factors that increase the chances of HIV transmission include repeated exposures through unprotected sex; the concentration of HIV in blood, semen or vaginal fluid; the relative vulnerability of mucous membranes involved during sex; the duration of exposure; the strain of virus; the presence of herpetic or syphilitic lesions; and impaired judgment caused by alcohol, cocaine or other drug use.
“Heterosexuals `unaware’ of HIV risk”. Men’s Fitness. FindArticles.com. 08 Feb, 2010. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1608/is_9_17/ai_80309798/
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