News Finding: "The scarcity of programs and interventions to support their maintained HIV negativity needs to be addressed as a primary prevention effort."
Paper Finding: Although condom use (and PrEP) may be the ultimate prevention goal, most men in the study admittedly do not use condoms consistently and most were not amenable to PrEP.
News Context: "One takeaway is that HIV-negative black MSM want to be better attended to by public health HIV prevention, beyond counseling and testing," said Jagadisa-devasri Dacus, Ph.D., LMSW, who conducted the study and is the lead author of the article. "The scarcity of programs and interventions to support their maintained HIV negativity needs to be addressed as a primary prevention effort." This underscores the need for community-based organizations and health service providers to constructively engage HIV-negative black gay and bisexual men as part of their comprehensive HIV prevention strategy.
Paper Context: Findings suggest that men who do not contract HIV may be engaging in risk reduction strategies before and during sexual events that could lead to increased condom use, avoidance or delay of a risky sexual event (such as when the men discussed not getting so high or drunk they might end up in a situation in which they do not use a condom), or reduction of their risk pool (i.e., reducing the number or type of partners likely to have HIV through screening and pre-selection). Although condom use (and PrEP) may be the ultimate prevention goal, most men in the study admittedly do not use condoms consistently and most were not amenable to PrEP. The findings suggest there may be additional strategies that can contribute to risk reduction.