The invisible epidemic

doi:10.1136/bmj.a2566

Published 25 November 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a2566
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a2566

Feature

HIV and AIDS

The invisible epidemic

Bob Roehr, freelance medical journalist

¹ Washington, DC

BobRoehr@aol.com

Lack of recognition of homosexuality in many countries is hamperingefforts to reduce HIV transmission among men who have sex withmen. Bob Roehr reports

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Men who have sex with men are at the core of the HIV epidemicin every country in the world. But social and governmental denial,stigma, and violence against those who transgress sexual normshave helped to hide this fact and impede efforts to preventnew HIV infections.

At one extreme are Iraq and Iran, where religious fundamentalistshave hunted down and killed hundreds of people whom they believeto be gay. Further along the spectrum are scores of nationswhere draconian sodomy laws are aggressively enforced, withpenalties that include years in prison. Political and religiousleaders in Botswana even tried to quash research into the subject,claiming that same sex activity did not exist in that country.

Epidemiologists created theterm men who have sex with men because a substantial portionof men who engage in that activity do not identify themselvesas gay and often do not . . . [Full text of this article]

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