Author: aj s

For World AIDS Days 2018–2021 we partnered with UNAIDS to present some key findings from the European and Latin American MSM Internet Surveys on the UNAIDS website for key populations. Findings are shown as interactive maps that include various sexual health indicatiors for gay men, bisexual men and other MSM.

Recruitment and Outness

• Crude Recruitment Rate: Number of men reached by EMIS-2017/LAMIS, per 10,000 men aged 15–65
• Not open about sexual orientation (non-outness): “Out” to few or none of friends, family, work (%)

HIV

• HIV diagnosis: ever diagnosed with HIV (%)
• Recent HIV diagnosis: HIV diagnosis in the past 12 months (%), excluding men diagnosed with HIV more than 12 months ago
• HIV testing: Tested for HIV in the last 12 months (%), excluding those diagnosed longer ago
• Community-based HIV testing: Using community HIV- testing at last HIV test (%, denominator includes untested  men)

Sexually Transmitted Infections: Testing, Diagnosis, and Partner Notifiaction

• Comprehensive STI screen: HIV test, STI blood test, rectal swab, urethral (trans men if applicable: vaginal) swab or urine in the last 12 months (%), excluding men diagnosed with HIV more than 12 months ago
• STI testing: any test for a sexually transmitted infection, in the previous 12 months (%)
• Disclosure in health care: Disclosure of same-sex contacts towards health care provider during STI-testing in the last 12 months (%)
  
• Syphilis: diagnosed in the previous 12 months (%)
• Symptomatic syphilis: in the previous 12 months (%)
• Gonorrhoea: diagnosed in the previous 12 months (%)
• Symptomatic gonorrhoea: in the previous 12 months (%)
• Chlamydia: diagnosed in the previous 12 months (%)
• Symptomatic chlamydia: in the previous 12 months (%)
  
• Partner notification among men with syphilis (%)
• Partner notification among men with gonorrhoea (%)

Interventions

• Targeted information:  Saw or heard information about HIV/STIs for MSM, last 12 months (%)
• Received free condoms: Received free condom from NGOs, clinics, bars, or saunas, last 12 months (%)

Risk and precaution behaviour

• Condomless anal sex: Condomless anal sex with non-steady male partners of unknown HIV status, last 12 months (%)
• PrEP use:  Currently taking HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis daily or on demand (%), excluding HIV-diagnosed men

Knowledge

• Lack of PrEP knowledge: Not knowing that PrEP is a pill taken before as well as after sex to prevent HIV infection (%) 
• Lack of PEP knowledge: Not knowing that PEP stops HIV infection after exposure (%)
• Lack of U=U knowledge: Not knowing U=U (that a person with undetectable viral load cannot pass on HIV, %) 

Vaccinations

• HAV vaccination: history of at least one dose of hepatitis A vaccine (%), exluding those with a history of hepatitis A
• HBV vaccination: history of at least one dose of hepatitis B vaccine (%), exluding those with a history of hepatitis B

Suggested citation for EMIS/LAMIS indicators on the UNAIDS website for key populations:

UNAIDS Key Population Atlas: EMIS & LAMIS Indicators for men-who-have-sex-with-men. Geneva, 2018–21. Available at: https://kpatlas.unaids.org/dashboard

Disclaimer: Indicators published on the UNAIDS website for key populations based on data collected by the Latin America MSM Internet Survey (LAMIS) are not official/governmental data of the participating countries.

Available in 33 languages, the European MSM Internet Survey (EMIS-2017) recruited 137,358 qualifying participants from 46 countries across Europe and Lebanon, Israel, Canada and the Philippines. The Latin American MSM Internet Survey (LAMIS) recruited 64,655 participants from 18 countries.

EMIS-2017 was undertaken by researchers from Sigma Research at the London School for Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the Robert Koch Institute. Data was collected between 18 October 2017 and 31 January 2018.

LAMIS, using the same questionnaire and finishing data collection on 12 May 2018, was the first multi-country survey for gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (MSM) in Latin America. It was implemented by researchers from Right PLUS*, a coalition of researchers from Latin America, Portugal, Spain and the Netherlands, with support from the EMIS team.

EMIS and LAMIS required a great deal of international cooperation and relied on the support of national stakeholders to aid local recruitment. Through this cooperation comparable data are now available for the first time for more than 60 countries across 4 continents.