Male bisexuals aren’t at greater HIV risk
A review of previous research reveals that bisexual men aren’t more likely than heterosexual men to have HIV. The results challenge a common assumption that bisexual men are more likely than heterosexual men to infect their female partners with HIV, commented the researchers from the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health the published findings.
The researchers analyzed more than three thousand scientific reports and found that bisexual men were only 40 percent as likely as homosexual men to have HIV. The reason may be be because bisexual men are less likely to have unprotected receptive anal sex, which is the highest risk factor for HIV transmission among men having sex with men in the USA.
The analysis also revealed that about 122,000 of the 1.2 million bisexual men in the USA are HIV-positive. That proportion is similar to estimated levels of HIV infection in heterosexual men and intravenous drug users, according to the authors of the study.
“The HIV infection risk that bisexual men pose to their female partners has likely been overstated. However, that doesn’t mean that HIV-prevention campaigns targeting bisexual men and their male and female partners aren’t needed,” commented the study Mackey Friedman from the University of Pittsburgh.
Source: University of Pittsburgh, news release, Nov. 6, 2013.