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National HIV Prevention Conference
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[TITLE:] NETWORK-LEVEL INTERVENTIONS TO REDUCE HIV AND STD TRANSMISSION IN VENUES WHICH FACILITATE SEXUAL MIXING
Natl HIV Prev Conf. 2005 Jun 12-15 (abstract no. MR-C0301)
Wohlkiler, D
STD Control Branch, California Department of Health Services, Oakland, CA
ISSUE: While sexual network theory has helped explain HIV and STD transmission, little attention has been paid on how to use it to address commercial sex venues, internet sites, and circuit parties which facilitate gay men and other men who have sex with men finding new sexual partners.
KEY POINTS: Many interventions in commercial sex venues, internet sites and circuit-parties focus on individuals, and may be improved by taking account how sexual networks may increase sexual risk regardless of individual-level factors.
IMPLICATIONS: Health Departments, Community-based organizations and owners of businesses which facilitate partner mixing need to understand and address a) mixing between high and medium-risk individuals; b) the importance of facilitating disclosure of sexual risk-taking behavior, HIV and STD status, and drug use.
ABSTRACT BODY:This roundtable will briefly introduce basic concepts of sexual networks (number of partners, concurrency, core groups, the architecture of sexual networks, and sexual mixing) and how they have been applied already to different internet sites, commercial sex venues, and circuit parties. Key themes from a meeting sponsored by the California Dept. of Health Services in the fall of 2003 on the implications of sexual networks will be highlighted. These include the need to help men make informed choices, and the need to create interventions which reduce the impact of high-risk core-group members on mediumand low-risk individuals. The importance of interventions at the entry (of either a commercial or internet venue), creation of sites catering to low-risk men, and other examples will be discussed.
The discussion will then focus on discussing different jurisdictions' pilots and interventions which address sexual networks, with the goal of brainstorming interventions and identifying facilitators and barriers to adaptation, expansion and evaluation of these interventions in other settings.
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050612
MR-C0301
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