Living dangerously

Making life safer encourages us to live more dangerously. That's the message (well known to risk analysts) of the article by Michael Cassell and colleagues in this week's BMJ (p 605). Risk compensation has been seen with sunscreens (encouraging more time in the sun) and seatbelts (bad driving), and is now a growing problem among people at risk of HIV. This “horse trading” in risk is most frighteningly illustrated by reports of people relying on pre-exposure or post-exposure use of antiretrovirals to protect them from infection.

Unless we link prevention with initiatives to …