HIV prevalence rate among MSM in city a big worry

Pune, March 20 Pune is fast emerging as a top destination of HIV prevalence among men having sex with men (MSM) - 23.6 per cent of this category has the virus. The city has been at the receiving end on this front with the figures having jumped from 12.8 per cent in 2004, to 14.8 per cent in 2005 and close to 24 per cent in 2006. And, it can only have grown in 2007, given that there are many gays among married men.

Now this high-risk group is set for a comprehensive package of prevention services under the third phase of the National AIDS Control Programme (NACP-3).

According to the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO)’s HIV sentinel surveillance and HIV estimation- 2006 – urban areas like Delhi, Pune, Bangalore, Surat, Vadodara, Rajkot and Kolkata have recorded a very high HIV prevalence among MSM.

Dr R R Gangakhedkar from National AIDS Research Institute (NARI) too pointed out that there was a high percentage of gays among married men. While the number of interventions has increased over the years, the third phase of the NACP will now concentrate on access to Sexually Transmitted Infections services to be provided by the NGO itself. At a state level media consultation on HIV/AIDS organised by the Centre for Advocacy and Research held on Thursday , various concerns and issues of MSMs and People Living with HIV/AIDS networks were discussed. Jasmir Thakur, coordinator of the Sambhavana Society that deals with 1,140 MSMs in Pune and 2,800 in Mumbai strongly urged that ‘homosexuality should not be medicalised’.

Sex workers can be identified in brothels but MSMs are not that easily visible and while they can be located at public toilets, there are also found at other sites like shopping malls railway stations and others.

In Pune there are 26 key sites and in Mumbai there are 111 sites where the society conducts its outreach programme for the MSMs, says Meena Chitale, the Pune coordinator of Sambhavana Society. “We have urged the Maharashtra State AIDS Control Society to extend our coverage from 500 to 2,500 MSM,” says Thakur. Monitoring access and utilisation of condoms and behaviour change will be another strategy to tackle the problems faced by MSM.

Meanwhile according to the NACO surveillance data the number of MSM population for the country is 2,352,133. The use of condoms was the highest in Mumbai and lowest in Chennai, according to the baseline survey on MSM carried out in Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai.