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AIDS education: Speak directly to gay men at saunas, clubs

I thank Action for AIDS Singapore (AfA) for its many outreach and educational activities to reduce high-risk sexual behaviour among gay men. (“Keep using condoms until both partners go for HIV testing”; Dec 9)

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Jason Wong Seng Yoong

I thank Action for AIDS Singapore (AfA) for its many outreach and educational activities to reduce high-risk sexual behaviour among gay men. (“Keep using condoms until both partners go for HIV testing”; Dec 9)

I hope it will include the Pink Dot event in these efforts, as a growing number of gay men and their supporters are participating in this annual event.

AfA mentioned that it is working with owners of gay saunas and clubs to promote human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/sexually transmitted infection (STI) education and encourage 100 per cent condom use.

However, it would be more effective to deploy trained teams to speak with customers of these premises directly, rather than go through these owners. This could be one of the ways AfA can “improve (its) outreach efforts to maximise the impact of HIV/AIDS education” in these places, where gay men often look for casual sex.

Effective HIV prevention would imply abstaining from casual sex or being committed to monogamous relationships. Relying on owners of gay saunas and clubs for HIV prevention is akin to asking them to tell their customers not to patronise their establishments.

This is a potential conflict of interest. Owners would advise their customers to use condoms, but not to stop engaging in casual sex.

AfA also advised gay men not to stop using condoms until both partners have gone for HIV testing, and if either partner has sex outside their relationship, they must never stop using condoms. This seems as if no one will get any sexually transmitted infection as long as condoms are used, even if one engages in high-risk sexual behaviour, a claim I doubt even condom manufacturers are ready to make.

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