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.

Purchase full article at: http://goo.gl/4Txc1a

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.

More at:  https://twitter.com/hiv_insight

Estimation of the Number of Female Sex Workers in Yangon and Mandalay, Myanmar

While it is known that HIV prevalence is higher among key affected populations, such as female sex workers (FSW), the sizes of these populations are difficult to estimate. This study aimed to estimate the numbers of FSW in the two largest cities of Myanmar using multiple data-driven methods. 

A total of 778 FSW (450 in Yangon, 328 in Mandalay) were recruited though time-location sampling during November and December 2013. Five multiplier methods and a modified wisdom of the crowds method were applied within the surveys to calculate the number of FSW in each city. 

The median of the methods estimated a population size of FSW in Yangon at 4992 (acceptable upper and lower bounds: 4,482 - 5,753) and 3,315 (2,992 - 3,368) in Mandalay. These estimates translate to a population prevalence of FSW among adult women (age 18-49 years) of 0.35% (0.32-0.40%) in Yangon and 0.77% (0.69-0.84%) in Mandalay.

Via: http://ht.ly/Rws1X HT https://twitter.com/NCBI