Understanding the risks- so how common is HIV?

atlantis1975Thu 26/04/07 19:34

1 in 28 gay men in the UK have HIV. 40% of gay men who have HIV do not realize that they have already been infected. 3-6% of gay men become HIV positive JUST having oral sex. Infection rates are higher in certain parts of the UK like Manchester at 1 in 11, London at 1 in 8, and Brighton at 1 in 7.

The full link to all the information that you need to know about HIV can be found here:
http://domain1051960.sites.fasthosts.com/docstore/HIV.pdf

Recently I created a profile on OUT with the id "HIV" to help promote the information. The administrators on OUT have now removed the profile. I have had a number of people both HIV- and HIV+ thank me for creating the resource. Many have said that they were not aware as to the risks from oral sex and that they will now go for testing. By raising awareness the profile has undoubtably saved lives. Unfortunately as OUT has now elected to remove the profile I am now having to promote the information solely in my profile and through forum topics like this- which is not going to reach anywhere near as many people.

What do you think? Do you think that having a separate profile which is constantly logged in would help to promote the information contained in the resource. Do you think that it might save lives?
If you do- can you contact the administrative team by typing in their names in the "quickfind box" on the top of the screen [snoboardr,jamieb,or lizzieblot] and sending them a message or send an email to hello@outeverywhere.com and asking them to reinstate the profile.

Any help you can give in help promoting the information would be much appreciated.
Thanks
Rhys

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BELOW IS THE MESSAGE I SENT TO JASON WHO RUNS THE WEBSITE:

thanks jason for taking the time to reply.

the issue here is what is the BEST way to get the information to the greatest number of people.

i have included the same information on my gaydar profile at: http://www.gaydar.co.uk/atlantis1975. i have had loads of people contacting me through gaydar thanking me for putting the resource on.

by having a separate profile on your site I was able to promote the information much more widely than by linking it directly into my profile where it would be obscured about other information about myself. when i tried creating a similar type of profile on gaydar the administrators blocked it saying that they would only allow profiles from the Terrence Higgins Trust. I don't know if you have ever looked at any of the Terrence Higgins trust profiles on there but they do not contain the sort of information found in my resource with the outline of infection rates, risks etc. People need to know the cold hard facts so they can make their own decisions as to what the risks are and that was the whole point of creating the HIV profile. no doubt i would have been able to contact more people had gaydar allowed me to create a separate profile- unfortunately they wouldn't. i had hoped OUT would be different.

there is no doubt in my mind that more people have read the information because it was featured separately as a profile. People have told me that now they know what the risks are, and that they have done things which are not as safe as they thought they were- that they will now go for a test. that action has undoubtably saved lives. the profile was viewed by some 300 people before you elected to take it offline. i had hoped to help inform even more people but this may not now be possible.

you mention using shoutouts and to creating profile topics. i don't know jason the last time you had a look at the shoutouts section but most of the stuff that people write on their is rubbish. as far as creating a topic - well that might be helpful. i have never even noticed the topics option under the Forum menu before and if i don't know about it i guess a VERY large number of other people don't either. i have been looking at the forums section just - there is actually some good stuff on there. i see a section, three pages down from the top on health related matters and HIV. that was through me deliberately hunting it out. most people won't be doing that jason. the whole beauty of having a separate profile is that it actually listed it as being online. people saw it when they were looking through other people's profiles and could click on it if they wanted to see more information. equally they could choose to ignore it if they wished.

i understand you have received complaints about the profile- that this a "Social" network and that information like this should not be presented in this way. May I point out that every profile on here has a section on "Love, Sex, and Relationships". Why would a "social" network - just interested in helping promote friendship list an option so that you can communicate with other people whether they are active/passive, which are the options listed in the "Love, Sex and Relationships" section of each members profile. Clearly the site is also used for gay people to meet other gay people with the intention of forming relationships.

your website has a unique opportunity to act as an information resource and it is this function that i am trying to utilize. once i've gotten a patient into my GP consulting room I can inform him about all the risks but the problem is I need to get him into the room first to do that. by raising awareness more people will go to their doctors/ go to their sexual health clinic and more lives WILL be saved.

you have said that i could give up my profile name and migrate it to "hiv". well jason, news flash here, but i am single and i am looking for a partner and that really isn't going to help my chances of finding someone is it. i was prepared to do that with my gaydar profile as it has a more graphical interface and I could include a link to the resource externally via a linked picture - your website does not allow this feature.

would you be happy if i included more personal information about myself in the "hiv" profile so it would then qualify as a "personal" account? the other option is to have some link to the resource so that when people first login, the welcome screen they initially see contains a link to the resource. that will give people the option of viewing it if they are interested. equally they can ignore it if they are not interested.

i will not be contacting any other members directly on this matter. as far as i am concerned the issue is now out of my hands. i have tried to help people- all i can ask now is for your help in getting that information across.

Rhys