False Impressions About HIV

A reader here in Very Rich Megacity drew our attention to a Letter to the Editor that appeared in the South China Morning Post on 9 September 2013.

The letter is set out in full below, with underlining by FuelMix:

Creating false impressions about HIV

Peter Shek ("Critics of gays should be free to speak out", September 4) is right that we need honesty and openness about the health problems facing people in Hong Kong.

However, some of his comments on HIV could create false impressions.

It is correct that new HIV infections in homosexual men are the biggest issue on HIV infection right now. However, until 2005, heterosexual infection for HIV was the biggest problem here and right now people of all sexualities are still being infected. Since the first case of HIV in Hong Kong, 2,446 cases of HIV have come about through heterosexual contact, compared with 1,836 due to homosexual contact.

If heterosexuals falsely think this is only a problem facing gay people, this will be very dangerous and we will see the infection spread even faster.

This is why Aids Concern currently has television advertising targeting heterosexual men, encouraging them to get tested if they are concerned about their HIV risk.

It is also ignorant to say that HIV is about sexuality as it wrongly assumes that there are single groups of people who all behave the same.

Many homosexual men who adopt safer sex and avoid risky sexual behaviour are at no more real risk of contracting HIV than heterosexuals.

Let's put a stop to all sexually transmitted infections for all people.

Andrew Chidgey, chief executive, Aids Concern

Copyright © 2006 - 2013 FuelMix All Rights Reserved