Black gay men may be at increased HIV risk

SAN FRANCISCO, July 1 (UPI) -- Social barriers faced by black gay men may have a serious impact on their health and well-being, U.S. researchers said.

H. Fisher Raymond and Willi McFarland of the San Francisco Department of Public Health said black gay men have less choice when it comes to sexual partners than other groups and, as a result, their sexual networks are closely knit.

These tightly interconnected networks make the rapid spread of human immunodeficiency virus more likely, the researchers said.

A total of 1,142 gay men took part in computer-assisted interviews. They were asked about their own ethnicity, the race of their sexual partners in the last six months, their perception of how easy it is to meet sexual partners of different ethnicities, where they meet sexual partners, their view of HIV infection risk and the predominant race of their network of friends.

The study, published in the journal AIDS and Behavior, black men are perceived to be riskier to have sex with, which can lead to men of other races avoiding black men as sexual partners in San Francisco.

The findings indicate that the sexual networks of blacks are pushed to be more highly interconnected than other groups, with the potential for a more rapid spread of HIV and a higher sustained prevalence of infection among black gay men.