HIV Patients Treated With Protease Inhibitors Are More Likely To Engage In Risky Sex, Emory Research...( Patients living with HIV who are bein...),Health

Patients living with HIV who are being treated with protease inhibitors may be less concerned about practicing safe sex than those HIV patients not being treated with the drugs, according to a new collaborative study.

Researchers at Emory University's Rollins School of Public Health, the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention studied sexually active persons living with HIV and found that those treated with protease inhibitors were more likely to report inconsistent condom use compared to persons not treated with protease inhibitors.

Ralph DiClemente, Ph.D., Emory professor of behavioral sciences and health education, will present the research at the American Public Health Association meeting in Washington, D.C. on Nov. 18.

The study included a cross section of persons living with HIV attending six public clinics in non-urban Alabama communities. Within the study group, sexually active patients being treated with protease inhibitors were approximately two and a half times more likely to engage in risky sex (use condoms less than half the time while having sex) compared to patients not being treated with protease inhibitors.

Even more alarming, according to Dr. DiClemente, was the finding that patients using protease inhibitors were also more likely to report "never" using condoms during sexual intercourse. Even after controlling for factors such as age, race, education, and other AIDS defining conditions, patients treated with protease inhibitors were significantly more likely to report engaging in risky sex. There were significant differences, however, by sexual preference.

Within the study group, men who had sex with men (MSM) and were being treated with protease inhibitors were 3.8 times more likely to report condom use less than half the times they engaged in sexual intercourse compared to MSM not being treated with protease inhibitors. MSM using protease inhi
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Contact: Holly Korschun
hkorsch@emory.edu
404-727-3990
Emory University Health Sciences Center
18-Nov-1998