"brainfart" <fart@brain.org> wrote in message
Here is some light reading, enjoy.
Twenty-five years ago in June 1981 a new epidemic of transmissible cancer, in the form of
Kaposi's sarcoma, was uncovered in young gay American men with acquired immune deficiency
disease (AIDS). In 1984 the cause of the AIDS was determined to be a new virus called HIV (the
human immunodeficiency virus),
now considered to be "the sole cause of AIDS."
A decade later, in 1994, yet another "new virus" was claimed as the cause of Kaposi's sarcoma
(KS), the so-called "gay cancer" of AIDS. KS skin tumors were
the hallmark of the "gay-related immune deficiency syndrome" when it first appeared in male
homosexuals in Manhattan in the late 1970s. After a quarter
century the precise origin of HIV, as well as the origin of the KS epidemic, remains
mysterious.
With the discovery of the KS virus, it is now clear that two new viruses were introduced to
produce what was initially regarded as the "gay plague". How
were two new viruses (HIV and the KS virus) simultaneously "introduced" into gays to produce
AIDS?
The origin of Kaposi's Sarcoma
Before the epidemic, KS was a rare cancer in the U.S. The KS virus -now called the human
herpes-8 virus (HHV-8) or the Kaposi's sarcoma herpes virus (KSHV)-
is now widely accepted as the cause of most cases of KS.
KS was first described in 1872 in Vienna, by Hungarian dermatologist Moriz Kaposi. Before the
epidemic KS was a rare and usually mild form of cancer occasionally
tumors in elderly Jewish and Italian-American men. The cancer was never considered a
contagious, infectious, or sexually transmitted disease. KS in African-Americans
was as rare as hen's teeth before AIDS appeared in the late 1970s.
In the 1960s KS was recognized as a common tumor in blacks in Central Africa. However, the
African form of KS was not associated with the severe immunodeficiency
characteristic of AIDS, nor was it sexually transmissible, and HIV was not found in these
patients.
KS is a medical enigma. [1] How did KS become a transmissible epidemic disease in gays? How did
the KS herpes virus escape detection during the first 15
years of the epidemic? Why did the KS virus and HIV suddenly appear together in the late 1970s
to produce a "gay-related immunodeficiency disease?" How
could cancer be "gay"?
Were these two simultaneous epidemics in gay men simply caused by two viruses out of the
African jungle? Or was the hand of man - in the form of medical
experimentation - responsible for the "introduction" of these viruses into the male homosexual
community?
The two epidemics of AIDS and Kaposi's sarcoma
At the beginning of the epidemic many virologists thought KS might be caused by a transmissible
herpes virus called the cytomegalovirus (CMV), which purportedly
was found in the semen of gay men. However, when Robert Gallo of the National Cancer Institute
discovered HIV in April 1984, interest in CMV waned.
After the KS virus was discovered in 1994, it was also found in other forms of cancer, such as
lymphoma and multiple myeloma.
KS virus infection is no longer rare; and most people infected with the virus will never
develop KS cancer tumors. However, when people are infected with
HIV and the KS virus, KS tumors can occur. The KS herpes virus is considered a "helper virus,"
which encourages the development of KS cancer in HIV-infected people.
Researchers are still not exactly sure how the KS virus is transmitted. Mouth-to-mouth
transmission, such as kissing, is believed to be the primary mode
of spread. But kissing is hardly limited to homosexuals. Some studies have found the virus in
the semen of KS patients, while other studies have not confirmed
this. In Central Africa, where KS is endemic, children can become infected with the KS virus
early in life before sexual activity occurs.
When AIDS began it was thought that "gay cancer" was similar to the more severe endemic form of
KS found in Africa. However, as noted, African KS cases
were HIV-negative and were not immunosuppressed. Some investigators have attempted to uncover
the origin of AIDS by re-examining "old cases" of African
KS. But AIDS, by definition, must be infection with HIV. Therefore, pre-AIDS KS cases have no
connection to the origin of AIDS.
The epidemic of "Gay Cancer" exclusively in homosexuals
After the introduction of HIV and the KS virus into the U.S. gay male population in the late
1970s, the incidence of KS skyrocketed.
A 1989 report by Biggar et al. found no cases of KS in young men in New York City during the
years 1973-1976. However, by 1985 the incidence of KS in "never-married
men" in Manhattan had increased 1850 times; and in San Francisco the rate of KS increased over
2000 times! [2]
KS is now 20,000 times more common in AIDS patients than in the general population. Currently,
the CDC claims that KS occurs in only 15% of gay men with
AIDS (down from 30% at the beginning of the epidemic).
Separating the HIV epidemic from the KS epidemic
When stored blood samples of gays followed for HIV infection were re-examined by
epidemiologists in 1999, it was reported that more than 20% of a group
of 245 homosexual men from New York were infected with the KS herpes virus as early as 1982.
[3]
Some experts now claim the epidemic of KS in gay men arose separately from the epidemic of HIV;
and KS is thought to be an unrelated and distinct epidemic.
However, the vital question of how two new viruses (HIV and the KS virus) were introduced
exclusively and simultaneously into homosexual men is never raised.
It is simply theorized that both the KS virus and HIV are "ancestor viruses" of primates in the
African bush that jumped species to infect the human population.
The Virus Cancer Program and biological warfare research
In the decade before AIDS, animal retroviruses (similar to HIV) and herpes viruses (similar to
the KS virus) were extensively transferred between animal
species as part of the Virus Cancer Program (1968-1980). The annual "Progress Reports" of the
VCP details the animal cancer research and the genetic engineering
of animal viruses.
In 1969 a military biowarfare expert predicted to U.S congressmen that a biological agent could
be developed within a decade that would have a devastating
effect on the human immune system and for which there would be no effective treatment. (For
details Google: "Donald M MacArthur " + congressional testimony.)
Military biological warfare research became officially connected to VCP research on October 18,
1971, when President Richard Nixon permanently joined the Army's biowarfare research laboratory
at Fort Detrick, Maryland, with the National Cancer Institute. The army lab was renamed the
Frederick Cancer Research
Center.
Scientists in the VCP wanted to learn how to use animal viruses to make cancer - and how to
force "normal" human cells to become cancerous by subjecting
them to various animal viruses. A primary task was the large scale production of cancer-causing
viruses and suspected cancer viruses to meet research VCP
needs on a continuing basis. Special attention was given to primate viruses (the alleged
African source of HIV and the KS virus). Another goal was the
production of "human candidate viruses." Candidate viruses were defined as animal or human
viruses that might cause cancer in humans.
Biowarfare scientists had a keen interest in animal herpes "helper viruses" (1978 VCP Report;p
54). Chimps (who purportedly carry the ancestor virus of
HIV) were extensively used by the VCP because there would be no official testing of cancer
viruses on humans.
As biowarfare expert MacArthur predicted, the VCP created new cancer-causing viruses which had
a deadly effect on the immune system. In one experiment recorded
in the 1973 Report (p169), and later published in Cancer Research in 1974, newborn chimps were
taken away from their mothers at birth and weaned on milk
from cancer virus-infected cows. Essentially "AIDS" was created in animals. Some of the chimps
sickened and died with two diseases that had never been
observed in chimpanzees: Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (later known as the "gay pneumonia" of
AIDS) and leukemia, a cancer of the blood.
Because of the dangerous transfer of primate viruses into human cells, the VCP was a biological
disaster waiting to happen. This possibility was recorded
in the 1978 VCP report from the Office of Biohazard Safety stating: "The inadequate care and
handling of animals during the past several years have created
a potential for the occurrence of infection of humans with simian (primate) microorganisms and
cross infection between species. Such interspecies disease
transmission may seriously compromise the integrity of the experiment as well as the health of
the experimenter. Due to the magnitude of biomedical research
employing tissue cultures, frequent evaluation of tissue culture cross-contamination is very
important."
A decade before Gallo discovered HIV, he reported a "new" and "human" and cancer-causing "HL-23
virus" that later turned out to be not one but three contaminating
primate viruses (gibbon-ape virus, simian sarcoma virus, and baboon endogenous virus). How
these three primate viruses contaminated Gallo's lab is unknown.
As late as 1986 Max Essex of Harvard "discovered" a new human
AIDS retrovirus found in the blood of healthy Africans. Eventually this virus
proved to be a monkey virus which traced back to a nearby primate colony in Massachusetts. In
the first decade of AIDS Gallo and Essex were the leading
proponents of the African green monkey theory of origin of AIDS.
In 1999 a team of researchers led by Beatrice Hahn (who worked in Gallo's lab when he proposed
the green monkey theory) also claimed HIV traced back to
chimpanzees in the African wild. This finding was quickly accepted as the true origin of HIV
and AIDS; and the discovery was widely heralded in the media.
Did a KS virus originate from laboratory primate viruses?
A decade before AIDS, monkey cancer-causing viruses were adapted to human cells. In 1967
Herpesvirus saimiri, a harmless squirrel monkey virus closely related
to the new KS herpes virus, was forced into different animals, such as the owl monkey,
marmosets and rabbits, where it produced cancer in the form of malignant
lymphoma. Lymphoma is a common cancer in AIDS patients; and there is also a close relationship
between KS and lymphoma.
In 1971 Dharam V Ablashi of the NCI transferred H. saimiri into various cell lines of human
origin. (1971;35). Attempts were made "to find a suitable method
for the large-scale production of high-titer Herpesvirus saimiri" (1973;264). By 1976 it was
also learned that H.saimiri was contagious and spread by "contact
transmission" between squirrel and owl monkeys in the laboratory.
The Virus Cancer Program and secret human experimentation
A 1972 VCP Report (p. 262) emphatically states: "Since man will not be used as an experimental
recipient, it is necessary to gain proof of oncogenicity
by other means." How that "proof" would be obtained was never made clear.
With its close ties to military biowarfare research it is conceivable that the VCP undertook
covert human testing of suspected cancer-causing viruses.
The U.S. military has a long history of secret human experimentation on unsuspecting citizens.
(Google: secret human experimentation + military). Were gay men used as guinea pigs to test the
effects of these viruses?
In 1977 Merck and Co, Inc. made most of the experimental hepatitis B vaccine used in gays the
following year. Merck's role in the VCP was "to conduct investigations
designed to develop vaccines or other agents effective for the prophylaxis and therapy for
human neoplasia (cancer) of suspected viral etiology" (1972
report; p 139).
Merck also wanted to develop an anti-herpes virus vaccine. Merck researchers stated: "Since
live attenuated or killed virus vaccines for potentially oncogenic
viruses would not be acceptable for human use due to the danger of transfer of functional
genetic material, this project was initiated to determine whether
vaccines to purified viral antigens acceptable for use in humans were of practical value."
(1977;160) This proposed "purified" herpes vaccine was similar
in type to the experimental "purified" hepatitis B vaccine injected into gays the following
year in 1978.
"Gay cancer" and man-made laboratory "helper viruses"
The herpes KS virus is a "helper virus" which promotes cancer, particularly when combined with
HIV. In the decade before AIDS it was discovered that some
cancer-causing animal sarcoma viruses could not produce cancer unless a "helper virus" was
present. For example, certain chicken, cat and mouse sarcoma
viruses were "defective" in their ability to induce experimental cancer. But when a "helper"
leukemia virus was added to the mix, the sarcoma virus was
able to induce cancer.
By 1977, the year the experimental hepatitis B vaccine was being developed by Merck for use in
gays , scientists in the VCP aimed "to determine the oncogenic
[cancer-causing] potential of putative human viruses" and "to begin viral vaccine (conventional
or other) testing and immunization programs" (1977 VCP
Report; p32). The exact methods for accomplishing this were not stated. However, it is now
obvious that the introduction of two new viruses into gay men
conveniently accomplished this goal of VCP scientists: namely, to prove that immunosuppressive
and cancer-causing retroviruses - with or without herpes
KS-like "helper viruses" - could cause disease and cancer in humans.
The gay hepatitis B experiments (1978-1981) that preceded AIDS
HIV and the KS virus were introduced shortly after U.S. government scientists began recruiting
large groups of gays from health clinics for the purpose
of testing, treatment, and experimentation. It is my contention that this most hated minority
in America afforded an opportunity to covertly test laboratory
cancer viruses and "human candidate viruses" as specified in the VCR annual reports.
Were the primate "ancestors" of HIV and the KS herpes virus contained in some vials of the
experimental hepatitis B vaccines? The extremely high incidence
of both these "new" viruses in gays who volunteered for the vaccine experiments suggests this
possibility.
The experimental vaccine was developed by Merck in chimpanzees and manufactured by purifying
the pooled blood of 30 gay men who were hepatitis B virus carriers.[4]
The volunteers in the experiment had to be free of the hepatitis B virus in order to test the
efficacy of the vaccine.
During the first trial (November 1978-October 1979) at the New York Blood Center in Manhattan,
there was great concern that the vaccine might be contaminated.
According to June Goodfield's Quest for the Killers, p 86, "This was no theoretical fear,
contamination having been suspected in one batch made by the
National Institutes of Health, though never in Merck's." The 1,083 gay men were given three
inoculations of the vaccine over a period of three months.
The vaccine for each injection given to each man was contained within a one-dose individual
vial.
The vaccine trial was a tremendous success with 96% of the men developing protective antibodies
against the hepatitis B virus. [5,6] Some investigators
condemning the man-made theory of AIDS have speculated that many of the men might have been
already immunosuppressed by HIV before the experiment. However,
in that case the 96% success rate could not have been achieved because immunosuppressed people
frequently do not produce antibodies to the vaccine. Furthermore,
there is no evidence that HIV existed in the U.S. blood supply before 1978, the year the gay
experiments began.
Irrespective of how the two viruses were "introduced," it is a fact that government scientists
quickly vilified gays and promoted AIDS as "gay-related immunodeficiency
disease," and as "gay cancer" and "gay pneumonia." The disease was allowed to spread by the
federal government which put budget ahead of the nation's welfare,
and by disinterested health authorities who placed political expediency before the public
health - and by scientists more concerned with international
prestige than saving lives, as detailed by Randy Shilts in his classic book, And The Band
Played On.
The end of the Virus Cancer Program and the birth of AIDS
The VCP ended in 1980 with the inability to prove that viruses were involved in human cancer.
However, the VCP gave birth to genetic engineering, molecular
biology, and the human genome project. The program built up the field of animal retrovirology,
which led to a more complete understanding of how immunosuppressive
and cancer-causing retroviruses caused disease. Naturally, this was helpful when the first
cases of "gay cancer" erupted in 1979 in Manhattan and the epidemic
was officially recognized in 1981.
As the VCP ended in 1980, more gay vaccine experiments began in other cities, such as San
Francisco and Los Angeles. The vaccine trials ended in early 1981,
just before the epidemic became official. These cities quickly became the primary epicenters of
AIDS. Within a few years AIDS became the leading cause
of death in young men in New York City; and that city would have the largest number of reported
cases in the U.S. (7)
Being a participant in the government's hepatitis studies was clearly dangerous to a gay man's
health. After HIV and the KS virus were introduced there
was a definite increase in the cancer death rate in male homosexuals, not only from KS, but
from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and other types of cancers as
well. This was reported in Koblin's 1996 study of 15,565 gays in New York and San Francisco who
participated in hepatitis B virus studies in the late 1970s.[8]
The introduction of HIV and the KS herpes virus into gay men miraculously revived the career of
Robert Gallo and made him the most famous virologist in
the world; and turned the failure of the VCP in 1980 into a triumph a few years later.
When Gallo's blood test for HIV became available in the mid-1980s, the New York Blood Center's
stored gay blood specimens were reexamined for this virus.
Most astonishing is the fact that 20% of the gay men in the Manhattan experiment were
HIV-positive in 1980 (one year before the AIDS epidemic became "official").
These Manhattan gays in 1980 had the highest incidence of HIV anywhere in the world, including
Africa, the supposed birthplace of HIV and AIDS. Forty percent
of the men were HIV-positive in 1984. [9] And, as previously noted, one out of five gay men
(20%) in an AIDS study group in New York City in 1982 tested
positive for the new KS herpes-8 virus.[3]
It must be assumed that many of the men in the experiment eventually died of AIDS. The actual
number of AIDS deaths has never been revealed. Attempts to
secure this vital medical information have been rebuffed due to "confidentiality issues."
The origin and spread of the new Kaposi's Sarcoma virus
We are expected to believe that two primate viruses out of the African jungle "jumped
species" -and ended up exclusively in the blood of white gay men in
Manhattan in 1979. Such an unlikely biological scenario has the markings of a scientific fairy
tale; and I remain stupefied that this theory has been so
readily and universally accepted as "fact" by AIDS scientists.
In this regard, Patrick S Moore (a co-discoverer of the KS virus) claims the virus may have
been introduced recently into the human population from a primate
reservoir in Africa (''The emergence of Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus,' New England
Journal of Medicine [Editorial], November 9, 2000). Moore
also alerts us to the danger of "xenotransplantation," whereby animal tissue and parts (along
with animal viruses) are placed into human beings.
The distinct possibility that pre-AIDS primate experimentation was responsible for transferring
HIV-like chimp and monkey viruses into humans is never mentioned
by virologists. In addition, the AIDS establishment pooh-poohs any connection between the
pre-AIDS gay experiments and the exclusive outbreak of HIV and
the KS virus in homosexuals.
Also long forgotten are the millions of people (including half the U.S. population) injected
with a cancer-causing monkey virus called simian (monkey) virus
-40 which contaminated polio vaccines in the 1960s up to the late 1990s. For more details of
this vaccine horror, see: [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]) and the
recently
published, The Virus and the Vaccine: The True Story of a Cancer-Causing Monkey Virus,
Contaminated Polio Vaccine, and the Millions of Americans Exposed.
Once a rare virus, the KS virus is now widespread among "normal" blood donors. Donated blood is
not routinely tested for the presence of the virus; and
there is concern the KS virus could be further spread by blood transfusion. [10] In Texas 15%
of blood donors now test positive for the KS virus. [11]
A 2004 study indicates that up to 40% of men with prostate cancer (the most common form of
cancer in men) have evidence of the KS virus in their blood.
[12]
The man-made theory of AIDS and the Kaposi's sarcoma epidemic
In this current period of history when the origin of the Iraq war is shrouded in lies and
deception at the highest levels of government, it is certainly
conceivable that the origin of AIDS and two new viruses could also be shrouded in scientific
secrecy, disinformation, misinformation, and government cover-up.
The evidence gathered here is merely a tiny fraction of the circumstantial evidence supporting
the man-made origin of AIDS and the KS epidemics, both epidemics
erupting immediately after a decade of dangerous animal cancer virus experimentation. The
man-made theory has been fully explored in my two books, AIDS
and the Doctors of Death and Queer Blood, as well as in Leonard G. Horowitz's Emerging Viruses,
and in Robert E. Lee's AIDS: An Explosion of the Biological
Time-Bomb. A Google search, using the key words "man-made origin of AIDS," reveals over 300
citations.
Although the scientific community and the media have totally ignored this subject for the past
quarter-century, the man-made "conspiracy theory" of AIDS
refuses to go away.
And finally, after all these years, it is time for medical science to admit that cancer can
never be "gay" - or "straight."
[Dr. Alan Cantwell is a retired dermatologist; and the author of five books on the man-made
origin of AIDS and the infectious origin of cancer, all published
by Aries Rising Press, PO Box 29532, Los Angeles, CA 90029 ([Only registered and activated
users can see links. ].
Email: [Only registered and activated users can see links. ].
Abstracts of 30 published papers can be found at the PubMed website. Many of his personal
writings can be found on [Only registered and activated users can see links. ] by typing in key
words "alan cantwell" + articles. His latest book is Four Women Against Cancer: Bacteria,
Cancer and the Origin of Life. His books are available on [Only registered and activated users
can see links. ] and through Book Clearing
House @ 1-800-431-1579]
References:
1. KS enters Y2K still riddled with many questions.
J Natl Cancer Inst. 1999 Oct 6;91(19):1612-4.
2. Biggar RJ, Burnett W, Mikl J, Nasca P. Cancer among New York men at risk of acquired
immunodeficiency syndrome. Int J Cancer. 1989 Jun 15;43(6):979-85.
3. O'Brien TR, Kedes D, Ganem D, Macrae DR, Rosenberg PS, Molden J, Goedert JJ. Evidence for
concurrent epidemics of human herpesvirus 8 and human immunodeficiency
virus type 1 in US homosexual men: rates, risk factors, and relationship to Kaposi's sarcoma. J
Infect Dis. 1999 Oct;180(4):1010-7.
4. Szmuness W. Large-scale efficacy trials of hepatitis B vaccines in the USA: baseline data
and protocols. J Med Virol. 1979;4(4):327-40.
5. Hoffman LJ, Bunker CH, Pellett PE, Trump DL, Patrick AL, Dollard SC, Keenan HA, Jenkins FJ.
Elevated seroprevalence of human herpesvirus 8 among men
with prostate cancer. J Infect Dis. 2004 Jan 1;189(1):15-20. Epub 2003 Dec 31.
6. Szmuness W, Stevens CE, Harley EJ, Zang EA, Oleszko WR, William DC, Sadovsky R, Morrison JM,
Kellner. Hepatitis B vaccine: demonstration of efficacy
in a controlled clinical trial in a high-risk population in the United States. N Engl J Med.
1980 Oct 9;303(15):833-41.
7. Koblin BA, Morrison JM, Taylor PE, Stoneburner RL, Stevens CE. Mortality trends in a cohort
of homosexual men in New York City, 1978-1988. Am J Epidemiol.
1992 Sep 15;136(6):646-56.
8. Koblin BA, Hessol NA, Zauber AG, Taylor PE, Buchbinder SP, Katz MH, Stevens CE. Increased
incidence of cancer among homosexual men, New York City and
San Francisco, 1978-1990. Am J Epidemiol. 1996 Nov 15;144(10):916-23.
9. Stevens CE, Taylor PE, Zang EA, Morrison JM, Harley EJ, Rodriguez de Cordoba S, Bacino C,
Ting RC, Bodner AJ, Sarngadharan MG, et al. Human T-cell lymphotropic
virus type III infection in a cohort of homosexual men in New York City. JAMA. 1986 Apr
25;255(16):2167-72.
10. Dollard SC, Nelson KE, Ness PM, Stambolis V, Kuehnert MJ, Pellett PE, Cannon MJ. Possible
transmission of human herpesvirus-8 by blood transfusion in
a historical United States cohort. Transfusion. 2005 Apr;45(4):500-3.
11. Baillargeon J, Deng JH, Hettler E, Harrison C, Grady JJ, Korte LG, Alexander J, Montalvo E,
Jenson HB, Gao SJ. Seroprevalence of Kaposi's sarcoma-associated
herpesvirus infection among blood donors from Texas. Ann Epidemiol. 2001 Oct;11(7):512-8.
12. Hoffman LJ, Bunker CH, Pellett PE, Trump DL, Patrick AL, Dollard SC, Keenan HA, Jenkins FJ.
Elevated seroprevalence of human herpesvirus 8 among men
with prostate cancer. J Infect Dis. 2004 Jan 1;189(1):15-20.
'Gay Cancer' & The Man-Made Origin Of AIDS - By Dr. Alan Cantwell, MD - 05-22-2006
"brainfart" <fart@brain.org> wrote in message
I supplied some light reading, without comment. Here is another.
Club drugs, or recreational drugs, as they are sometimes called, have only recently been
associated with increased high-risk sexual behaviours which, in turn, may cause higher
incidence of HIV/AIDS. The most significant new drugs of the past twenty years have been crack,
ecstasy, crystal meth and Viagra. Crack played a significant role in spreading HIV in the inner
cities of the United States, whereas ecstasy has played a more ambiguous role in North America,
Europe and Australasia. More recently, crystal meth and Viagra are playing a significant role
in the spread of the HIV epidemic amongst gay scene attendees in North America and Europe.
Crack is a highly addictive derivative of cocaine (see the A-Z of drugs), and has become widely
available in inner city areas in the US and Europe. Some researchers attribute the spread of
HIV amongst women in the US to the practice of trading sex for drugs. Users are reported to
trade sex for the next hit of crack in what are known as crack houses, locations where dealers
sell the drug to addicts and make pipes available to smoke the drug. Crack houses often appear
to bring uninfected women into contact with HIV-positive injecting drug users acting as
dealers.
Crack appears to play a significant role in the spread of HIV in the United States because of
its role in encouraging high rates of partner change in communities where HIV is already
prevalent. A high incidence of other sexually transmitted infections amongst crack users
compounds this problem by increasing the chances of transmission. Researchers in Florida found
that women who used crack were more likely to be black, to have had more than five sexual
partners per month, and that women were more likely to have exchanged sex for money and to have
more than five sex partners per month after initiating crack use (Schoenfisch et al. 1993). It
has also been noted that crack use may increase the risk of oral transmission of HIV due to
burns and sores in the mouth caused by crack smoking, and because at least one study has shown
that the sex sold by male and female crack addicts is predominantly oral sex. Sharing crack
pipes is also contributing to the spread of Hepatitis C. It has also been noted that
prostitution by crack users has led many non-crack users to seek out crack using prostitutes
because they offer cheaper sexual services (Genser et al. 1992).
Crack is now prevalent in the UK, chiefly in larger cities, and it seems that the links between
crack use and HIV which have appeared in the US will be replicated in the UK. A recent study,
looking at the prevalence of recreational drug use in a group of club-goers in Scotland, found
that crack use was less than 5%, compared with 80% use of ecstasy and amphetamines. (Riley et
al. 2001). However, police figures from 2002 show that the numbers of those arrested for
trafficking and possession of crack in Britain have risen by more than 200% since 1999.
Ecstasy has been linked to unsafe sex by a number of studies of sexual behaviour amongst gay
men. This suggests a possible link between ecstasy use and the increase in risk behaviour which
could lead to HIV infection. An American study of 169 gay and bisexual men who were mostly
club goers, published in July 2000, found that men who used ecstasy were more likely to have
unsafe sex than men who drank or used other drugs. Overall, 57% of the men reported having had
unprotected sex at least once during the past year- with the odds being higher among those who
used ecstasy frequently (Klitzman et al. 2002).
Drugs such as MDMA have become increasingly popular within a significant drug-using subset. A
large probability telephone sample of urban men who have sex with men (MSMs) taken at four
large American cities found a 52 percent prevalence of recreational drug use (Stall et al
2001). A separate study in New York City found that 13.7 percent of a sample of MSMs reported
using MDMA within the past six months, using it an average of 6.24 times in that period.
Compared with non-users, MDMA users were found to have more male partners, have more one-night
stands with men, and have more unprotected anal sex with men. (Klitzman et al. 2002). There was
clearly an association between club drug use and high-risk sexual behaviours.
Although there have been no further recent studies on the link between Ecstasy and unsafe
sexual practices, the use of ecstasy amongst gay men in the UK has not declined. In 2001, twice
as many people suffered from ecstasy-related deaths (40 vs. 20) than in 2000 (Stall et al.
1999). Some ecstasy users argue that since the drug relaxes blood vessels, making erections
difficult to maintain, unsafe sexual practices are being reduced by the drug. However, this
does not prevent an ecstasy user being the receptive partner. Furthermore, the anti-impotency
drug Viagra, which became more widely available in the UK since 1998, is being combined with
ecstasy and other drugs increasing the possibility of sexual risk-taking amongst club-going gay
men in the UK.
Since HIV-positive men are more likely to suffer from sexual dysfunction than their
HIV-negative counterparts, many HIV-positive men receive prescribed Viagra from their
clinicians. However, Viagra is easily available through illicit sources, either on the internet
or through adverts in the gay and club-scene press, and increasing numbers of men are using it
recreationally.
A study presented at the 13th International AIDS Conference in July 2000 in Durban, conducted
quite soon after the licensing of Viagra, among both HIV-positive and HIV-negative gay men
using one of five central London gyms found that 15% of all men had ever used Viagra (Sherr et
al. 2000). The overwhelming majority (83%) had used it recreationally, without prescription and
63% had combined it with other recreational drugs. HIV-negative men were found to be more
likely to report serodiscordant unprotected anal intercourse (UAI) in the previous three
months, while actually taking the drug, than those who had never taken it (4.0% v 3.8%). Rates
of serodiscordant UAI in the previous three months among the HIV-positive men who were taking
the drug were barely different to those recorded among HIV-positive men who had never taken the
drug (4.0% v 3.8%). The authors concluded that both HIV-positive and HIV-negative men may have
added Viagra to their risk-taking repertoire, rather than Viagra causing the increase in risk
behaviour.
A more recent study from San Francisco (Kim et al. 2002) found similar incidences of
unprescribed Viagra use, high rates of STIs, and use of Viagra with other recreational drugs.
Worryingly, 17% of Viagra users had combined the drug with poppers (amyl/butyl nitrate) which
can lead to dangerously low blood pressure, stroke, heart attack or death. The authors were
unable to differentiate whether these MSM were experiencing higher rates of STIs and
unprotected sex because Viagra enables men to have more partners, Viagra increases the length
of sexual exposure, or that these men simply added Viagra to their risk-taking repertoire.
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