By Legolas. You can view his blog at http://legolas80.blogspot.com/

HIV is on the rise, not only in the US, the UK, but also Malaysia. The doctors from hospitals knew, the anonymous screening at Pink Triangle Foundation shows, those people with HIV can tell. There is no statistics recorded with real numbers and cold evidence because the government couldn’t care less. They don’t recognize the problem’s source because they keep their eyes shut to homosexuality, even if they knew we exist. They’re more interested in money, power and coming up with silly thoughts.

How many of us had unprotected sex before? How many times you think you can be lucky and get away with it? 5 times? 10 times? No, it takes only 1 time. 1 time of fun and then a lifetime of pain. You say you trusted your partner. How sure are you? You can only be 100% sure if you are with him 24/7. It doesn’t mean you don’t trust your partner when you want to have protection, it means you love yourself. And like they always say, you have to love yourself before you can love other people. If your partner left you because of that, he didn’t love you at all, and he’s definitely worthless.

Who is going to protect yourself better than your own self? Don’t be so ignorant about HIV because no matter how good the medication nowadays have advanced, there is still no cure to HIV, after 27 years since it was first discovered. Don’t engage in unprotected sex no matter how much you trust your sexual partner. Learn and understand about AIDS and HIV. Get yourself tested every 6 months, even if you didn’t have sex because there is a possibility you might get it from other ways.

Don’t put yourself and the people you love in danger. The next time you want to have unprotected sex, think again. It takes only 1 time. Treasure your life and love yourself more.

HIV on Wikipedia

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-          In the United States alone, HIV infections among gay men have risen 75% over the last 15 years (news report from CDC).

-          Globally, men who have sex with men, or MSM (regardless of sexual orientation), are 19 times more likely to be infected with HIV compared to the general population.

-          They are 18 times more likely to be infected with HIV compared to the general population in Asia alone.

-          The Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR) studied 128 countries. 44% (nearly half) of them failed to provide any data whatsoever on MSM.

-          71% did not have any information on the percentage of MSM reached by HIV prevention program.

-          These statistics include Malaysia.

(Source: “MSM, HIV, and the Road to Universal Access – How Far Have We Come?” August 2008, Special Report by the Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR))

While initiatives pertaining HIV/AIDS prevention and awareness have made significant strides among high-risk communities such as with intravenous drug users and sex workers, there is a worrying noticeable trend among the men who have sex with men (MSM) community.

This has prompted WHO Director-General Margaret Chan, and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, to call for governments to target the epidemic among MSM. According to the report released by amfAR, much of the failure to tackle the endemic in MSM communities can be attributed to a lack of leadership from both national governments and the institutions charged with leading the global response to HIV/AIDS.

The task is further hampered by the many social and cultural taboos, government and public prejudice, and media victimization on the community; these factors may be responsible for forcing many individuals of the community into underground and non-mainstream alternatives to continue their lifestyles, making prevention and outreach work increasingly difficult.

Tilted World, through its posts and work, should continue to bring such issues to the mainstream of society, albeit beginning with the online community. Misconceptions such as those found in several mainstream media publications, the criminalising of sodomy, and police raids on lgbt-related events should be addressed immediately, on and off-line.