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Seroadaptive Behaviors of Men Who Have Sex with Men in Myanmar

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Abstract

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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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Population Services International-Myanmar, Yangon, Myanmar

    Tin Aung & Si Thu Thein

  2. San Francisco Department of Public Health, 25 Van Ness Avenue, Suite 500, San Francisco, CA, 94102-6033, USA

    Willi McFarland

  3. University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Willi McFarland

Authors
  1. Tin Aung
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  2. Si Thu Thein
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  3. Willi McFarland
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Correspondence to Willi McFarland.

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Aung, T., Thein, S.T. & McFarland, W. Seroadaptive Behaviors of Men Who Have Sex with Men in Myanmar. AIDS Behav 20, 2827–2833 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-015-1216-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-015-1216-6

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