Five studies reported that gay men who used Viagra were 2 to 5.7 times more likely to have put themselves or their partners at risk by having unprotected sex with a person whose status they either didn't know or was the opposite of their own.Studies in San Francisco suggested that Viagra users were 2.5 times more likely to test positive for HIV than other gay men, two times more likely to get diagnosed with a sexually transmitted disease other than HIV, and 3.5 times more likely to have used methamphetamines within the past four weeks.
Viagra "is the only sexual health product that's associated with increased risk for STDs," said study co-author Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, director of STD prevention and control services at the San Francisco Department of Health. "Condoms, birth control, emergency contraception -- they've all been shown not to be associated with increased risk of STDs."
It's a little bit said to see health officials in a city with a high occurence of unsafe sexual activity try to push this off on a medicine that does not affect the decision making ability of its users. Villifying Viagra and adding another warning label is not going to lead these individuals to make smarter decisions. They know the risks they are taking, but the risk is part of what gets them off. Blaming Viagra isn't going to solve that problem, it's only going to obfuscate the real reason behind it. It's a little bit like saying 10W-30 is the reason drunk drivers get into accidents.
No comments:
Post a Comment