HIV spread linked to private sex parties

07/01/2011
Over 70 per cent of gay and bisexual Asian men use the Internet to find sexual partners. About 60 per cent said they travelled, and of these, 12 per cent attended private sex parties while overseas, according to an online survey by gay lifestyle portal Fridae.com

 

Such private sex parties were the "epicentres"of sexual infections like HIV, overriding other common meeting places like public saunas, said Dr Stuart Koe, founder of the portal which is based in Singapore.

Eight per cent of those who travelled also had unprotected sex while abroad, he added. The findings were released Thursday at the first-ever Asian regional conference to tackle HIV among gay men and transgender people.

Dr Koe, who presented the findings at the Developed Asia Regional Consultation o­n HIV in MSM (men who have sex with men) and transgender people, called for a regional response to counter the problem that private sex parties posed towards the spread of HIV.

"This is where the highest-risk sex is happening - where the rates of condom use are the lowest, the prevalence of HIV the highest, and drug use is also the highest," he said. That people can hook up with sex partners by a simple click of the mouse has also resulted in the trend going regional.

The Straits Times/ANN

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