Soaring HIV rates among bisexual men in Asia

Almost 10 million men in Asia have sex with other men. HIV rates in Asia are soaring as more bisexual men have been infected with the virus.

I have lived in Asia for almost 29 years of my life, and I could say that gays and lesbians are more open (not in terms of same sex marriages) in Asia compared to the United States. You could see a lot of gay people wearing make ups, skirts, wigs and other girl stuffs strolling in the outskirt of the metros. They do not actually care how they look like or what others would say unto them. From where I lived, I could say that gays are not treated fairly by most families; they were usually scorned by their own relatives, siblings and worst parents. In spite of the fact, gays will always be gays; most of them will never change. They are like women trapped inside a man’s body. The estimate number of men who have sex with other men (MSM) have reached 10 million according to the World Health Organization. The growing HIV rates among gays and bisexual men in Asia is very much alarming. In Thailand alone it has been reported that almost 1,115,415 adults were infected by HIV/AIDS. Thailand is one of the countries in Asia that offer cosmetic surgeries including sex organ transplants. The country was also referred as the sex tourism destination since the Vietnam war.

HIV is spread by sexual contact with an infected person, by sharing needles and/or syringes (primarily for drug injection) with someone who is infected, or, less commonly (and now very rarely in countries where blood is screened for HIV antibodies), through transfusions of infected blood or blood clotting factors. - CDC.gov

Prevention is the key to stop the soaring rates of HIV infected individuals. Gays and bisexual men who are younger must be aware and taught about the risks they could face from engaging sexual contact to other men.