Shift of preference of location for sexual partnership in men having sex with men in an Asian population

Tam²,

Tan³

et al. 2009

Aids

Self Cite

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

Section: Questionnaire On Partnershipmentioning

confidence: 99%

An exploratory study on the social and genotypic clustering of HIV infection in men having sex with men

Tam²,

Tan³

et al. 2009

Aids

Self Cite

“…30 Sex partnership facilitated through the Internet, along with the identification of clusters, was one main reason behind the spread of the virus in the community. 31 In our cohort, increased numbers of MSM registering at the cohort actually began a few years earlier than its documentation through seroprevalence studies or reporting mechanisms. 32 Second, the cohort database supported the profiling of AIDS-defining illnesses in the HIV patients in Hong Kong.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Development of an HIV Clinical Cohort Database for Enhancing Epidemiologic Surveillance in Hong Kong

Asia Pac J Public Health

et al. 2009

The Hong Kong HIV Cohort Database is an observational cohort including all patients enrolled in 2 HIV specialist clinical services in Hong Kong. Basic demographics, HIV transmission category, and the diagnoses of AIDS were captured using a standardized template. As of December 2006, 2132 HIV cases had been registered in the database, representing two thirds of all reports submitted to the government's surveillance system. Non-Chinese and young females≤24 years were less represented in the cohort. Description of cohort cases was, however, more complete in terms of transmission category and presentation with AIDS-defining illnesses. Overall, Pneumocystis jirovecci, tuberculosis, and systemic mycosis accounted for a majority of AIDS cases within 3 months of HIV diagnosis. There was a gradual rise of HIV positive men having sex with men in the cohort, notably after 2002, an observation also made in other Asian countries.

“…The increased HIV transmission in Hong Kong and nearby Chinese cities could have resulted from an increased connectivity among MSM, rather any change in the practice of unprotected sex, a phenomenon also proven in our study. Popularity of internet use could be an important predisposing cause for the rising efficiency of HIV transmission [21]. The convenience of internet use has turned it into a virtual location for sex partnership.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social network methodology for studying HIV epidemiology in men having sex with men

Journal of Infection and Public Health

Tam

et al. 2009

Self Cite

A self-administered network-based questionnaire survey was conducted on 91 HIV-positive Chinese men having sex with men (MSM). Affiliation matrices were created to assess their networking pattern. The individuals' preferential use of venues for sex partnership before HIV infection has changed over three time periods of 1997-2000, 2001-2003 and 2004-2006. Over time, there was a parallel increase in network density (density scores from 0.26, through 0.36, to 0.53) and degree centrality (from a median score of 9, through 12, to 16), suggesting that connectivity of MSM was becoming higher through sexual networks. The overall practice of unprotected sex has, however, remained the same. The study demonstrated how the application of social network analysis could enrich the epidemiologic description of HIV infection in the population.