Spotlight On...Bareback Britain. Doing it raw!
....“We reckon that about 80,000 HIV infections have been prevented by condom use already this century,” says Matthew. “There seems to me to be a movement now that says that condoms are not worth it, that we just need to get all men to test, get them treated and infection rates will drop. We’ve seen the number of men who get tested triple over the last decade – many more gay men have been diagnosed and are on treatment, and have become less infectious as a result. But the evidence suggests that the number of new infections is remaining steady. I don’t think that this is good enough. I want to see the number of new infections fall.”
“I don’t believe that an HIV diagnosis is inconsequential – I see men who are traumatised by it and for whom it has a long term, often devastating impact. I support medical interventions to prevent HIV, whether that’s reducing the viral load of those who have HIV, PEP for men who have been exposed, or even PrEP (taking HIV medication when you’re HIV negative to prevent infection occurring) for men with ongoing risk behaviour, but I think we need to have a combination prevention approach, utilising all the resources that we have, if we are going to prevent the harm that HIV inflicts on our community. So that means testing and treatment, but also condoms, and a belief that as gay men our lives are valuable and our health is worth preserving.”......