SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 6 (UPI) -- Some men acutely infected with HIV are choosing to have unprotected intercourse only with other HIV-infected partners, a U.S. study found.
Lead author Wayne Steward of the University of California-San Francisco Center for AIDS Prevention Studies said this reflects a systematic shift by some HIV-infected men, most of whom are gay.
The findings, from clinics that enroll newly HIV-infected study participants in San Francisco; New York City; Los Angeles; New Haven, Conn.; San Diego and Providence, R.I., found 27 men prior to HIV infection had unprotected intercourse acts with HIV-negative or HIV-unknown partners almost 75 percent of the time. However, following a acute HIV diagnosis, they altered their behavior to having unprotected anal or vaginal intercourse 97 percent of the time with other HIV-infected individuals.
Acute infection is the one-month period immediately following HIV infection when individuals tend to have the highest levels of HIV in their blood, making them much more likely to infect a partner.
The findings were presented at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National HIV Prevention Conference in Atlanta.
