Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1997. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1997. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Wednesday August 13 6:20 PM EDT
"Our findings suggest that recent advances in treatment are affecting the sexual decision-making" of some men who have escaped infection with the AIDS virus, according to the survey in this week's edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.
Those men may be resuming behaviors that put them at risk for contracting the deadly disease of the immune system, according to Dr. James Dilley and his colleagues at the University of California at San Francisco.
At least 275,000 Americans are living with an AIDS infection, which is spread by sharing needles, anal intercourse, or any other interaction where contaminated body fluid is shared.
In the past year, researchers have reported that combinations of several drugs known as protease inhibitors have been able to reduce drastically the number of AIDS virus particles detectable in the blood.
However, more recent -- and less widely publicized -- research has shown that traces of the virus remain in the blood despite the treatments, which means that the multi-drug cocktails are probably buying time, not a cure.
To gauge the effect of the optimistic publicity, the Dilley team asked 54 homosexual men without HIV about the impact of the new treatments.
They found that 26 percent of the men said they were "less concerned about becoming HIV-positive" because they believed they could take advantage of the new treatments.
Another 13 percent agreed with the statement, "I am more willing to take a chance of getting infected when having sex."
Fifteen percent said they had already taken such a chance with the expectation that a new "AIDS cocktail" would protect them.
Dilley and his colleagues, in a letter in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine, said "efforts at prevention must address the altered perceptions of risk that result from the improved treatments for HIV disease."
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