ACON to focus on risks rather than condoms
ROBERT BURTON-BRADLEY
A major new sexual health campaign will try to inform men about degrees of risk in having unprotected sex, rather than attempting to dissuade them from it in the first place.
The campaign follows a national rise in HIV by eight percent this year, and the fifth year in a row that there has been an increase nationally.
Leading HIV/AIDS organisation ACON is running the campaign called ‘Know The Risk’ to increase gay men’s knowledge about the degrees of risk involved in choosing not to use condoms during sex.
ACON HIV and sexual health programs director Geoff Honnor said the national increase in diagnoses last year emphasises the need for fresh approaches to HIV prevention.
“Here in NSW, HIV notifications have remained stable for 15 years,” Honnor said.
“If we are to achieve a sustained decline in HIV notifications, we clearly require different strategies.
“In order to get there, ACON is rebuilding our engagement with gay men via a range of new programs and social marketing initiatives.
“This now includes Know The Risk, which speaks directly and honestly to the reality that some gay men use risk reduction strategies other than condoms, depending on circumstance and practice.”
The campaign seeks to provide an analysis and evaluation of non-condom based risk reduction strategies, which are commonly used by some gay men, according to ACON.
These strategies include strategic positioning or ensuring the HIV-negative partner is insertive (i.e. the ‘top’), serosorting or seeking partners with the same HIV status and incorporating an informed understanding of undetectable viral load into risk reduction practice.
All these strategies carry risks that vary according to practice and circumstance.
The campaign website includes a risk calculator which can determine the degree of HIV transmission risk in more than 70 different scenarios from user-supplied information about the context of their encounter.
There’s also a risk scale and an interactive questions section, which will deliver a response to queries within one working day.
Honnor told the Star Observer the campaign was not designed to encourage unsafe sex or substitutes to condoms.
“The role of ACON, as a peer-based health promotion organisation, is to provide guys with the means to make the most informed decisions possible about reducing risk. To make these decisions, they need to know why one occasion of unprotected sex might be unsafe and another less so and how to weigh the difference,” he said.
“It’s important to acknowledge that this isn’t about gay men ignoring risk. It’s about guys finding ways to balance risk and pleasure. They also need to understand that while nothing is without risk, condoms provide the most assurance about reducing any chance of HIV transmission.”
INFO: knowtherisk.org.au
