Seroadaptive Behaviors of Men Who Have Sex with Men in Myanmar

Serosorting (i.e., choosing partners of the same HIV serostatus to reduce the risk of transmission with unprotected sex) and other forms of seroadaptation (i.e., engaging in diverse behaviors according to a hierarchy of risk by type of sex and partner serostatus) are phenomena widely described for men who have sex with men (MSM) in the developed world. We assessed seroadaptive behaviors among MSM surveyed in Yangon, Myanmar in 2013-2014. 

Among HIV-negative MSM, 

• 43.1 % engaged in some form seroadaptation including 
• serosorting (21.8 %), 
• using condoms with potentially serodiscordant anal sex (19.3 %), and 
• seropositioning (1.7 %). 

Among HIV-positive MSM,

• 3.5 % engaged in serosorting, 
• 36.0 % in using condoms with potentially serodiscordant anal sex, 
• 7.0 % in seropositioning, and 
• 46.5 % in any form of seroadaptation. 

For HIV-negative and HIV-positive MSM, seroadaptation was more common than consistent condom use (38.0 and 26.7 %, respectively). MSM in Myanmar are engaging in seroadaptive behaviors in magnitude and ways similar to MSM in industrialized countries.

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By: Aung T1, Thein ST1, McFarland W2,3.

• 1Population Services International-Myanmar, Yangon, Myanmar.
• 2San Francisco Department of Public Health, 25 Van Ness Avenue, Suite 500, San Francisco, CA, 94102-6033, USA. willi_mcfarland@hotmail.com.
• 3University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA. willi_mcfarland@hotmail.com.

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