| One of the world's newest HIV epidemics is emerging now in Russia and
other countries of Central and Eastern Europe. We report on the HIV risk
characteristics of young Russian men who exchange sex for money or valuables,
a group that constitutes almost one-fourth of men surveyed recently in
gay-identified venues in St. Petersburg. Among 96 MSM who have sex for
economic gain, most reported multiple male and female partners, 45% had
unprotected anal intercourse with their male partners in the past three
months, and many not only received but also gave money or valuables themselves
to their male partners. Relative to men who did not give sex for economic
gain (n=326), those who did were younger (n=.0001),
less well-educated (p=.0001), and more often unemployed (p = .02). They
also were less knowledgeable concerning even basic HIV risk reduction steps
(p = .02) and held many misconceptions about safer sex. Men who exchanged
sex for economic gain had more male (p = .001) and female partners (p =
.01) in the past three months than men who did not, and one-third had been
treated for STDs. In the context of Russia's rapid cultural and social
changes, economic turmoil, and gay communities not yet experienced in AIDS,
HIV prevention programs must be tailored to risk patterns and dynamics
different than those found in the gay communities of many western countries.
PMID: 11398961 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] |
