The prevalence of HIV/AIDS among Men who sleep with Men (MSM) is at its peak. According to the statistics documented by the American Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), MSM are 27 times more likely to acquire HIV than the general population. According to the new statistics from the CDC, more than 17% of MSM are living with HIV. According to healthy people 2020, the problem is that most of these individuals are not well endowed with information on how they can care for themselves and stay safe in their intimate relationship (“Search the Data | Healthy People 2020,” 2019). From the statistics, it is thus evident that there is a need for health promotion targeting these specific people to establish strategies that can help them stay safe and free from infection in their relationship. In this sense, the article focuses on the MSM and the prevalence of HIV among them in the populations. Particularly, this article will focus on the health promotion strategies that can be important to help sensitize the MSM about HIV and how they can stay safe within their sexual relationship. In this regard, the article will also focus on one of the Healthy People 202o's Leading Health indicators on HIV testing and prevention among these individuals in the populations.
Overview of MSM
Men who sleep with Men are Gays and form one of the minority individuals in the world. This part of the population is highly stigmatized, and in this incase, they struggle with their sexual conditions in secret without informing those who can help them in fear of being discriminated. In this sense, it is challenging for any healthy body to try and challenge their reproductive or sexual problems because only a few of them come to light about the challenge they face daily. The effort to bring to light The MSM sexual challenges is thwarted by the fact that not many people are focused on understanding these individuals and helping them prevent infection among them. According to the CDC, these individuals face the risk of contracting HIV and another sexually transmissible disease because of anal sexual intercourse and lack of protection during anal sex. However, some of them are not aware of the risk because they lack the knowledge to understand these matters. Besides, data documented by Fields et al. (2015) also reveals that these people are less aware of how they can prevent infecting others or being affected by their partners. In this sense, it calls for an intense health promotion targeting MSM to sensitize them on ways they can prevent HIV infection and reduce the prevalence of the HIV infection among them. Currently, the infection rate has hit a whopping 17% in the United States. According to Healthy People 2020, people can reduce this rate through health promotion targeting these people.
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Concerning Healthy People leading indicators
Healthy People 2020 have made it clear that reducing HIV infection and also enhancing HIV screening and testing is one of the sensitive areas that they are focusing on and have placed as a priority. People classify Increase HIV Testing and Prevent HIV Risk under reduce HIV infection and titled HIV-14. Under this topic, the body addresses numerous matters relating to HIV aids mostly among minority people. Under the same title, there is a subtitle, named HIV-14.2 which focuses MSM solemnly. The focus, in this case, is to increase their proportion of people who seek for HIV screening and testing among these particular individuals. According to the National HIV Behavioral Surveillance System (NHBS), CDC/NCHHSTP's data that are used by the Healthy 2020 in this case, the trend of HIV infection among these people is increasing, and the priority is to sensitize these parts of the population to become alert and stay safe (“Search the Data | Healthy People 2020,” 2019).
Article Review
Different scholars have majored on this topic. Smith et al. (2015) examine the culture of condom usage among MSM. According to their findings, condom usage is one of the best practices to reduce HIV infection among MSM, even though individuals rarely use it among MSM. The authors thus promote the use of condom as a way to prevent HIV infection among the MSM. Martinez et al. (2016) also support the issue. According to these authors, seven out of 10 MSM are at are a risk of HIV exposure. The authors champion for HIV prevention and testing sensitization among these individuals to reduce the rate of infections. On the same matter, Fields et al., (2015) examine the sexual culture among MSM. According to them, unprotected sex as a way of proving manhood among these individuals is the real cause of proliferating HIV infection among them. The authors assert that 8% of MSM have unprotected sex in their lives.
Means of Health promotion
Reaching out for MSM through their pages on social media platform could be one of the best ways to reach them and pass them the message about testing HIV and ways of protecting themselves from the infections. Further, the use of mainstream media could be one of the best ways to target them and also reduce the culture of discrimination that prevents them from accessing healthcare facilities to stabilize their sexual behaviors and health. Working in conjunction with private and public hospitals as well as healthcare well-wishers and organizations to come up with a campaign on HIV aids testing, screening, and education can be a good way of targeting MSM. Lastly, the use of MSM HIV survivors who are well-wishers can also be the best way to sensitize these individuals on this matter to reduce infections.
In conclusion, the lack of awareness on the HIV infection rate and risk among the MSM are the sole reason for the high rate of HIV infection among these part of the population. In this sense, increasing sensitization on HIV screening and prevention is the best way to reduce the HIV infection rate among these individuals.
References
Fields, E. L., Bogart, L. M., Smith, K. C., Malebranche, D. J., Ellen, J., & Schuster, M. A. (2015). "I always felt I had to prove my manhood": Homosexuality, masculinity, gender role strain, and HIV risk among young Black men who have sex with men. American journal of public health , 105 (1), 122-131.
Martinez, O., Arreola, S., Wu, E., Muñoz-Laboy, M., Levine, E. C., Rutledge, S. E., & Rodríguez-Díaz, C. E. (2016). Syndemic factors associated with adult sexual HIV risk behaviors in a sample of Latino men who have sex with men in New York City. Drug and alcohol dependence , 166 , 258-262.
Search Data | Healthy People 2020. (2019). Retrieved 9 August 2019, from https://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/data-search/Search-the-Data#objid=4614;
Smith, D. K., Herbst, J. H., Zhang, X., & Rose, C. E. (2015).Condom effectiveness for HIV prevention by consistency of use among men who have sex with men in the United States. JAIDS Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes , 68 (3), 337-344.
