During my chat with Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health at the Lancet's AIDS conference here in San Francisco in November, I asked if he had looked at the Bay Area men-for-men sex ads lately on Craigslist lately. No surprise to hear him say no, so I filled him on a trend I've been watching for a few months.
Men posting ads have mentioned taking Truvada, a drug to treat HIV infection, as pre-exposure prophylaxis to prevent acquiring the virus that causes AIDS, in addition to the usual details about their sexual interests and the sort of men they're into.
I asked Tony, in the context of lots of HIV negative gay men are engaging in butt-sex without condoms and using strategies such as sero-sorting, anal condoms, j/o only and PrEP, what he would recommend to butt-bottoms who won't use condoms. He suggests PrEP for them.
It's one additional tool in the arsenal of options to stop HIV transmissions. I'm sharing some of the Craigslist ads to show how, at the online cruising level, at least in the San Francisco Bay Area, gay men are including info about being on PrEP in their hunt for sexual pleasures.
This is quite a good development for so many reasons, including that all the horned dudes cruising these ads are having their PrEP awareness levels heightened.
I think the fact that gay men cruising online are including PrEP on their profiles -- and asking questions of one another about it -- is a fantastic development.
ReplyDeleteOf course, we shouldn't take just anyone's word for it, and this applies to everything from their dick size to their relationship with their Mom, until we have further evidence. But I'm really glad to see PrEP become part of the pick-up conversation!
Mark
MyFabulousDisease.com
Mark, Do you have any idea if other CL M4M ads, say, in NYC or DC or Chicago, also mention PrEP? I'm not on Manhunt or Grindr and wonder if ads there show gay men are using PrEP in their pick up conversation as you so aptly put it.
ReplyDeleteI've never seen PrEP mentioned in CL ads in Boston, either in the regular M4M or in Casual Encounters. However, I think Fenway Health sometimes runs "ads" there offering info or when they're looking for people for trials. Fenway also runs ads on Manhunt via e-mail about PrEP.
ReplyDelete