Barcelona outbreak of rare venereal disease raises unprotected sex alarm {spain}

[xchrom]

http://www.elpais.com/articulo/english/Barcelona/outbreak/of/rare/venereal/disease/raises/unprotected/sex/alarm/elpepueng/20120119elpeng_11/Ten

An outbreak of a rare sexually transmitted disease, barely recorded since the 1980s, has raised the alarm at health centers in Barcelona.

In 2011, 72 people in the city were diagnosed with lymphogranuloma venereum, a disease that infects the lymph nodes, the highest number for 30 years. The first incidences were recorded in 2007 when seven people were diagnosed. Since then 146 cases have been detected.

The group most affected by the outbreak is homosexuals, the majority of them- 94 percent- also HIV carriers, a fact that has alerted the local health department to an increase in the number of risk groups and HIV carriers indulging in unprotected sex.

Only four of those infected last year were diagnosed with lymphogranuloma at the same time as they were diagnosed with HIV, says a report jointly produced by the Barcelona Public Health Agency (ASPB) and experts on sexually transmitted diseases at the Mar, Vall d'Hebron and Clínic Hospitals, which detected the outbreak last September.

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1. K&R Though I do want to point out there are a lot of presumptions made here.

In my opinion, probably the biggest presumption made by the journalist here is that HIV+ people who have sex with other HIV+ people are normally going to have protected sex with each other, i.e., referring to unprotected sex as an 'indulgence' (and describing gay dating websites as 'fashionable', ).

Condoms help protect against HIV transmission during intercourse between serodiscordant sex partners (couplings in which one partner is HIV+ and another is HIV-). However, if both partners are HIV+, or if both partners are HIV-, studies show they are unlikely to use condoms during intercourse. Since some of the aims of intercourse are fully achieved only during unprotected intercourse, far from being an indulgence, it's more like, I don't know, simply how sex is supposed to happen, isn't it?

Not trying to be petty; aside from that, it's important news. Thanks for posting this, xchrom.