Abstract
The study in this week’s issue of PLOS Medicine by Jewkes and colleagues on the prevalence of consensual male-male sexual activity and non-consensual male-on-male sexual violence, and their respective associations with HIV infection in South Africa [1], makes an important contribution to the dearth of literature on population-based HIV prevalence amongst men who have sex with men (MSM) in the African context. The paper highlights several important findings, including that HIV prevalence amongst South African MSM also has public health implications for South African women, given high levels of bisexuality and sexual concurrency amongst South African MSM. Assuming these findings are generalizable to the rest of sub-Saharan Africa, addressing the health needs of African MSM will require policymakers to meaningfully address significant socio-cultural and legal barriers that hinder access by MSM to HIVrelated health services. Failing to do so will fuel the spread of HIV in African men who engage in consensual male-male sexual activity and/or who are victims of male-on-male sexual violence. Socio-Cultural Barriers
Highlights
Open bigotry against homosexuals by such African leaders as Kenya’s former President Daniel arap Moi, Uganda’s current President Yoweri Museveni, and Zimbabwe’s current President Robert Mugabe have hardened views by some African traditionalists that homosexuality is ‘‘un-African’’ [2,3]
Politicians, and religious leaders must appreciate that inciting violence and perpetuating African men who have sex with men (MSM) denialism and bigotry breeds stigma and
This Perspective discusses the following new study published in PLOS Medicine: Dunkle KL, Jewkes RK, Murdock DW, Sikweyiya Y, Morrell R (2013) Prevalence of Consensual Male–Male Sex and Sexual Violence, and Associations with HIV in South Africa: A Population-Based Cross-Sectional Study
Summary
This Perspective discusses the following new study published in PLOS Medicine: Dunkle KL, Jewkes RK, Murdock DW, Sikweyiya Y, Morrell R (2013) Prevalence of Consensual Male–Male Sex and Sexual Violence, and Associations with HIV in South Africa: A Population-Based Cross-Sectional Study. Ostracism against MSM, which drives consensual MSM activities underground Such behaviour condemns male-onmale sexual assault victims to shameful silence. The end result is that men who engage in consensual sexual activities, and men who are sexually assaulted, are denied the opportunity to access vital HIV-related health services. Such missed opportunities to manage HIV and other sexually transmitted infections in these vulnerable populations hold major public health implications for female sexual partners of bisexual MSM and male-on-male sexual assault survivors
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