What the Rubberman Wrote
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In preparation for writing my column this month, I felt like I had to cenar – that is, to eat supper, in Spanish – at a Mexican restaurant. I had a typical dish for us estadounidenses at Cocula – a bean burrito with a side of yellow rice, flan for dessert and agua de horchata to drink - ¡Qué rico!
I am getting ready for my journey to Mexico City for the XVII International AIDS Conference, August 3-8, 2008.
You are probably wondering as you read this, how the trip is going and what I am learning at the conference. Are you? What foods I found will have to be described in the September issue of OIA. What nice locally made-by-hand leather boots I bought I will show you when I get back.
But even before the trip, hints from reliable Rubberman sources lead me to ask you; what if the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, www.CDC.gov) announces, based on revised number-crunching, that about 53,000 new HIV infections occur in the U.S. each year instead of the 40,000 they have been estimating annually for the past decade? What if we further learn that the CDC thinks much of the increase is due to infections in MSM – Men who have Sex with Men – some of whom don’t even identify or think of themselves as gay or bisexual?
Would it matter to you, or to anyone? Would it really matter at all?
I am concerned, and I do believe that a number such as 53,000 will be published; look for the official news while I am gone. It’s an important indicator that most approaches to HIV prevention so far have proven to be abstract rather than practical.
“Do I sound like a broken record going around and around and never letting up on the same old song (message)? Is there something different you would say or do if you were in my shoes?” [I wrote that in OIA last month.]
Finding a way to express the need for MSM to re-evaluate our role in HIV and STD prevention is a never-ending task, though we found a way before 1996, in the earlier years of the AIDS epidemic. We really did change behaviors, wore condoms and red ribbons, and got tested – but in those days people were not living as long with HIV because there were no life-saving medications or treatment regimens like there are today. Perhaps we take it for granted.
I am starting to sound judgmental, though I don’t intend to; and I believe the CDC is struggling to not sound judgmental with their latest data. Our community members will once again be stigmatized as “disease vectors” if this information is not sensitively reported.
Want one more growing problem?
Try syphilis. It is also on the rise, and being found not just in MSM, but disproportionately in MSM. Search the CDC website for “syphilis and MSM” (www.cdc.gov) “In 2006, 64% of the reported P&S syphilis cases were among men who have sex with men (MSM).” P&S is the abbreviation for primary and secondary syphilis, the stages when it is most infectious.
From the same site: “In the recent outbreaks, high rates of HIV co-infection were documented, ranging from 20 percent to 70 percent. While the health problems caused by syphilis in adults are serious in their own right, it is now known that the genital sores caused by syphilis in adults also make it [two to five times] easier to transmit and acquire HIV infection sexually.”
Damn, this is really depressing me.
I do know the Asheville area community where I live took 140,647 condoms plus lube from WNCAP’s outreach efforts during fiscal year 2007-2008 which ended June 30th; and I know most of those condoms were used for all the positions and sexual activities I imagine while home alone. Moreover, it appears that this area has achieved one of the lowest rates of new HIV case reports in North Carolina. So it is further up to us to spread the wealth of information and experience that we have to communities that don’t have the prevention tools and materials they need.
I recently heard a story from a dear friend who intervened when he saw a guy giving the ol’ heave-ho to his drunk friend by saying, “Hey, you are not wearing a condom,” to which his drunk friend responded, “Thanks for stopping him; I didn’t know he wasn’t using a condom.” I personally thought that took balls, and I thanked my friend for his outreach to another community member.
Now, what else might I be doing in Mexico City? Well, I will let you know all about my trip in the next installment of What the Rubberman Wrote.
Hasta pronto amigos y amigas. Tengan cuidado.
Cariñosamente.
Michael Harney –The Rubberman – can be reached at wncap@wncap.org or 828-252-7489 ext. 311.
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