Two important articles have appeared in The Bangkok Post newspaper since last week’s cancellation of the 2nd Chiang Mai Gay Pride Parade because a small group of red-shirted pro-Thaksin demonstrators objected to the event taking place in a public space.
The first was an announcement by Pairote Boonsirikamchai, assistant secretary-general of the Medical Council of Thailand that under 18 now could receive a free HIV test and counselling at clinics without their parents’ consent.
This is definitively a step forward. By making counselling accessible to the most vulnerable people in society, that …

In Sizwe’s Test (originally entitled Three Letters Plague), author Jonny Steinberg recalled his deep feeling of shame associated with his first HIV test. Discussing his experience with a psychotherapist friend, she found an analogy with how pregnant women were prohibited to appear in public three or four generations ago as they would have been a huge source of shame.
“What was the root of that shame? What was it that had to be concealed? It is not the fact that she has sex. Everyone knows she has. It is the external …

In developed countries, HIV is now a treatable medical condition and the majority of those living with the virus and on treatment remain fit and well. However a significant number of people in the United Kingdom are unaware of their HIV infection and remain at risk of being infected and of passing their virus to others. Late diagnosis is the most important factor associated with HIV-related morbidity and mortality in the UK.
It is in this context that the British HIV Association has issued new guidelines for HIV testing recommending that …

Some interesting results are coming out of the 2006 Gay Men’s Sex survey completed by more than 12,000 men in the UK.
Roger Pebody at Aidsmap provides an outline of the results presented in this 2008 report but amongst this mine of information there is one piece of information that is particularly interesting and that is illustrated in this first graph
This graph illustrates HIV testing history amongst the respondent according to their number of male partners during the last year (2006). For the non-specialist it reads as follow:
On the X axis …