Tag Archive: gay HIV

Why would you want to know if you are immune to HIV?

Why would you want to know if you are immune or partially immune to HIV?

Most gay men will know someone who has lots of unsafe sex but they are still negative it is likely because they are immune to HIV.   There are also lots of people who have been HIV positive for along time but are relatively healthy, these people are likely partially immune.

IF both your parents have the gene (CCR5) to make one immune to HIV then you will be immune.  IF one of your parents has the gene (CCR5) then you  will be partially immune to HIV.

 

IF YOU ARE HIV NEGATIVE – you may want to know you are immune because:

You can find out if you are immune to HIV or partially immune to HIV but getting a simple swab of your mouth.  The results will tell you if you are unlikely to become HIV + (partially immune), or if you will almost certainly will not become HIV+.  This knowledge may help you to have less anxiety about sex or some people may decide to have risker sex.

If one is partially immune then you will be a slow progresser, then the HIV virus will not have the same effect on you as someone who is not partially immune.

 

The immunity comes from not having receptors that allow the virus to enter the body.  One who is partially immune has fewer receptors so becoming infected is lessened and if one does get infected the disease will progress more slowly.

 

IF YOU ARE HIV POSITIVE – you may want to know you are immune because:

You will know if you are a slow progresser.   You may want to take less HIV medication to keep your viral load suppressed.  You may have peace of mind that you are not so likely to get sick from HIV.

A company called delta-32 will sell you the test to find out if you are immune to HIV.   Their website gives a lot of interesting information on HIV immunity.

Their website is:     http://www.delta-32.com/

Where to get tested for immunity to HIV/Who is immune to HIV?

http://www.delta-32.com/  This website will now give  you the test for HIV immunity.

The map below show where people are most likely to be immune to HIV.

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The delta 32 mutation is more prevalent in some racial backgrounds than in others. Population studies of the Caucasian population of western European ancestry revealed that approximately 1% of people were homozygous (2 copies) for the delta 32 mutation and up to 20% of people were heterozygous (1 copy). Within the United States, Canada and Australia, the frequency is 8% to 10% within the Caucasian background individuals, but less than 1% in the Afro-American populations. There is also a very low frequency of the mutation among the population in eastern Asia but much higher towards western Asia.

How HIV agencies marginalize HIV+ guys

 

 

Many HIV organizations will tell people to “know the HIV status of your sex partners”, I think this is bad advice.   There is now at study that shows it is bad advice.

 

It seems that anyone who tells you to know the status of your sex partner is setting you up for risk for becoming  HIV+.   The first question is why do you want to know the HIV status of your sex partner?  If you are fucking with condoms, then their HIV status does not matter.  If you are not fucking then HIV status will not matter.

 

When you compare the amount of HIV virus a person has, the guy on effective treatment likely has an undetectable load, (meaning <40), the guy who is most likely to have 200,000 time more HIV virus in them is the guy who thinks he is negative, not the poz guy.  He may have 200,000 times more virus than the poz guy on treatment for 4-26 weeks.  This makes the guy who thinks he is negative much more likely to pass on HIV.

 

Well lots of us guys fuck without condoms at times.  We know this happens, a lot.  By playing with the stats, we are trying to find ways to make fucking without condoms ok.   Well it is not easy to do.  Monogamy is one possibility, but I have talked to too many guys who say “my boyfriend thinks we are in a monogamous relationship.”  Only fucking with negative guys is another but we cannot know if they are truly negative.

 

Why would anyone tell you to know the HIV status of your partner, it seems beyond reason to me.  A person can only know their HIV status if they are HIV+, or not having anal sex and had a negative test.   Someone you meet for sex will almost for sure not be able to know they are negative.  They can say they had a negative test last month, last week or yesterday, but that does not mean they are truly HIV negative. (Positive results do not show for 10 – 90 days depending on the test.)

 

Talking about HIV status as a screening device to decide who you will have sex with goes a long way to marginalize and stigmatize HIV+ guys.   Do we really want to isolate and discriminate against 20-25% of our own population?  A study in the last year, explored anal sex contacts of 2623 gay guyswho do not always use condoms. The results showed that serosorting , that is: assuming, knowing,  or being by a sex partner that they are HIV-  -only gave a person a “small decrease in risk of getting HIV”.

 

How do we make the decision to fuck without condoms?  We know it is a risk to become HIV+.  So, some of us will drink too much to really think about it.  Some of us will do other drugs to “not care” at the time they are fucking.  Some will tell themselves he is so nice, so hot, in such good shape he cannot be HIV+.  I often think if someone wants to fuck with me without a condom, do I think I am special and the only one he does this with?  If there are other guys he fucks with then there is a bigger chance he may be positive without knowing it.  Some guys will ask if he is negative and then feel the chance is lower.

 

So we have a widely accepted practice of telling guys to “know the status of their partners, we now know this is bad advice.  This advice will further divide our community into HIV+ and HIV- guys.   We need to support each other, have sex together, and accept our differences.