Windy City Times (Chicago) (04.11.12) - Thursday, April 12,
HIV/AIDS researchers, service providers, advocates, and others
came together March 28 at the University of Chicago for a
conversation on connecting HIV/AIDS research and black men who
have sex with men (MSM). The summit was part of a series of
dialogues presented by the Chicago Black Gay Men's Caucus.
"Black MSM are an at-risk group we know has negative outcomes
[with HIV contraction]. We need to see how we can intervene
and prevent that," said presenter Dr. Kimberly Y. Smith, a
Rush University Medical Center associate professor.
Smith suggested that the popular focus on the secret gay lives
of "down low" men perpetuates the mistaken belief that certain
characteristics might identify an infected partner. "We should
be teaching women that anyone they have sex with can infect
them, puts them at risk," she said.
Dr. John Schneider, University of Chicago assistant professor
of medicine and epidemiology, presented research showing
similar rates of condom and substance use in different races
of MSM, even though the HIV infection rate among Chicago's
black MSM is almost seven times that of white and Latino MSM.
Schneider's social networks research suggests that in the
black MSM community, someone at high risk of HIV infection is
much more likely to cross paths with someone at low risk,
leading Schneider to propose network or venue alerts when
someone tests positive.
Dexter Voisin, of the University of Chicago School of Social
Service Administration, presented findings that black HIV-
positive MSM are less prone to status disclosure than white
MSM, which he attributed to stigma and "astounding, alarming"
levels of community misinformation.
The dialogue was sponsored by the US Department of Health and
Human Services and the AIDS Foundation of Chicago, among
others.