Info Center – Research

Men who have sex with men (MSM) are at high risk for HIV acquisition and transmission owing to the high risks associated with unprotected anal sex and barriers to accessing appropriate health services.

Various studies have proven the value of early initiation of antiretroviral treatment (ART) for both prevention and treatment.

This article illustrates the need for the immediate implementation of early ART among high risk populations such as men who have sex with men (MSM) where current safe sex interventions have proved limited or at worst ineffective.

The World Health Organisation has recently released a report on basic health care for MSM and transgender people entitled “Prevention and Treatment of HIV and Other Sexually Transmitted Infections among Men Who Have Sex with Men and Transgender People: Recommendations for a Public Health Approach.

Until recently, African MSM have been under-researched and under-resourced, and this has contributed to their stigmatisation.

Fortunately this deficiency has been recognised locally and a number of innovative programmes have been developed to address this.

The Top2btm symposium on prevention, treatment and care of MSM sought to bring together these programmes to share experiences.

The HIV prevalence rate among men-who-have-sex-with-men (MSM) in South Africa has been found to be consistently higher than the general population in a number of research studies. The reasons for this increased vulnerability to HIV infection have not been widely researched. This exploratory research offers a broad overview of the various elements that affect HIV risk among MSM in Cape Town, South Africa and offers recommendations for HIV prevention efforts and further research.