A leading university in New Zealand has claimed that a fifth of HIV positive gay men in the city of Auckland don't know their status.
Otago University made the claim after embarking on what is thought to be the first community-based biological
measure of undiagnosed infections, the NZ Herald report.
The findings were published in the journal BMC Public Health.
Studying more than 1,000 gay and bisexual men, the study was conducted in February 2011. They were screened using a saliva sample.
Lead investigator Peter Saxton, of Otago University's department of
preventive and social medicine, told the NZ Herald: "A person with undiagnosed HIV cannot tell someone they're infected
and might not initiate safe sex.
"The practical reality of this is that
everyone, especially gay men, needs to become better educated, supported
and proficient at safe sex to control HIV and other sexually
transmitted infections,"
Young men were one of the largest groups with unknown infections.
Saxton added: "There will always be a lag between infection and diagnosis, and a
person is particularly infectious early in the course of HIV infection
when partners can be exposed unwittingly.
"This is why condom use remains
key to control of your own and your partner's risk."
