When it comes to HIV, prevention beats treatment, expert says

The CEO of Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC), an AIDS-related non-profit in New York City, told the San Diego Gay & Lesbian News that over-hyped news stories about alleged HIV cures may damage the gay community, which suffers from high rates of the disease.

Marjorie Hill, who is both the non-profit president and a psychologist, referred to a recent story out of Germany, in which an HIV-positive man may have had his infection eliminated along with his immune system during a radical chemotherapy-stem cell transplant combination.

The man was being treated for cancer, not HIV.

Hill advised the news source that the gay community should be as open with one another as possible in order to maximize the prevention effort.

She added that the gay community, as well as anyone at risk for the virus, should focus on preventing its spread through condom use, sexual education and testing for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).

Individuals concerned that they have contracted an STD like HIV may consider looking into online testing services.

Hill concluded that poverty, racism and anti-gay bias may make coordinated prevention efforts more difficult, according to the news organization.

Men who have sex with men, African-Americans and the poor have some of the highest rates of HIV transmission in the country, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.