Health4Men at The Rec Room
Health4Men will be at The Rec Room on 25 April 2013 for the monthly HCT service from 18:00 to 21:00.
Drug-related harm reduction
In the field of sexual health, harm reduction is often closely associated with the use of recreational drugs. We certainly can’t stop people from using street drugs and instead of moralising about it and making drug users feel alienated, we need to implement programmes designed to mitigate the harm associated with this behaviour. Such harm reduction programmes are certainly not new – their importance is recognised by international bodies such as the WHO, UNAIDS and USAID – but they’re certainly new to South Africa. Health4Men, a project of the Anova Health Institute, already at the forefront of providing innovative free sexual health services for gay and bisexual men, has initiated an innovative harm reduction programme in Cape Town.
PRIDE month in Gauteng
Three pride events are lined up in September through to early October.
Health4Men will be attending all three pride calendar dates and MSM (men who have sex with men) will be able to get sexual health information from trained professionals, free lube and condoms and also make use of the free HIV screening (with counseling) services at all three events.
Check your assumptions
We all make countless assumptions every day. We assume that in the morning the kettle and toaster will do their jobs, that the car will start or that our train will arrive at the station. We make assumptions about our partners, our family members, our colleagues and our friends, and about strangers. Our assumptions about our environment and the people around us are often based on nothing more than irrational notions, concepts, beliefs and attitudes which are very rarely based on fact.
Read more.
Top2Btm: Changing Manscapes
The AIDS Priorities symposium focusing on MSM will be held in Cape Town on 20 & 21 August 2012 at the Vineyard Hotel and Conference Centre.
Truvada® approved by the FDA for the prevention of HIV
The latest milestone in the 30-year battle against HIV, is Monday’s approval of Truvada® by the American Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the prevention of HIV transmission. Truvada® is the first anti-retroviral (ARV) drug to gain approval as a preventive measure for healthy HIV negative people who are at high risk of acquiring HIV through sexual activity, such as those who have HIV-infected partners.
Jury out on using ARV prophylaxis (Mail & Guardian)
South African guidelines for the preventative use of HIV medication by men who have sex with men who are not infected with the virus are to be published in the peer-reviewed academic publication, Southern African Journal of HIV Medicine, this month.
The treatment, pre-exposure prophylaxis (Prep), consists of an antiretroviral (ARV) pill that is taken daily by HIV-negative people to lower their chances of becoming infected with the virus.
Lubricants a potential risk factor
While consistent use of condoms remain your best defence against HIV and other sexually transmitted infection (STIs), evidence has emerged that some water-based lubricants may be harmful to your rectum. This applies equally to top-of-the-range, expensive imported brands and locally manufactured lubricants.
These findings emerged when researchers trying to develop rectal microbicides started poking around and asking questions about the effects of sexual lubricants on the mucosal lining of the rectum