Contributed by William Angelos| 29 September, 2005 18:45 GMT
Three quarters of the men said they had been to a POZ party before, suggesting that a substantial number were regular attenders. The men surveyed said that they had also used other venues to find sexual partners.
The desire to have unprotected sex and to avoid having to raise the subject of HIV status with a new partner have given rise to an increasingly popular activity: POZ parties -- gatherings exclusively for HIV-positive men to meet other HIV-positive men.
Although POZ parties could serve to reduce the spread of HIV infection, researchers worry that the mix of high rates of unprotected sex and the use of other environments for sex may help to spread treatment-resistant strains of HIV.
They fear that a "superinfection" may develop, according to an article published in
Sexually Transmitted Infections.
Also, the risk of other sexually transmitted infections remains a concern, particularly because the immune system response is already compromised in HIV infection.
Accelerating Trend
POZ parties first emerged during the mid-1990s in New York, initially as informal gatherings for HIV-positive gay men. People learned about the events primarily by word of mouth.
Now, information about party dates and locations is available on an Internet site, and email notifications are sent to a list of more than 5,000 people. Parties are held several times a month in several other major US cities, as well as in Canada, Australia and Western Europe, note the researchers.
The study involved a brief survey of a sample of 115 men attending one or more POZ parties in New York during 2003.
Researchers found that those attending the parties were predominantly white and over the age of 30. Respondents had lived with HIV infection from as little as 2 months to 20 years since diagnosis.
Other STDs
Three quarters of the men said they had been to a POZ party before, suggesting that a substantial number were regular attenders. The men surveyed said that they had also used other venues to find sexual partners.
Only one in eight said their primary reason for attending a POZ party was to avoid spreading HIV to others.
Unprotected sex with several partners over the course of an event was common. Almost two thirds said they had had receptive anal sex, while almost three quarters said they had had insertive anal sex.
Two thirds were taking antiretroviral drugs, and one third reported having had an additional sexually transmitted infection within the preceding year.
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