A Gay Man Speaks Out on Partying, Club Drugs, and HIV

Cass Mann is one of the world's longest-term HIV-positive diagnosed gay men, now in his third decade of living with HIV, and the founder of UK’s only gay men’s HIV/AIDS charity Positively Healthy, which provides HIV services including education, support, and peer counselling. Here he talks about the role that partying and drugs play in contributing to the spread of HIV. People often contract HIV when on drugs and partying. Drugs used in clubs increase the risk that people will have unprotected sex. People sometimes experience a sense of inevitability that they WILL contract HIV, therefore they don't take steps to avoid contracting HIV. They may even long for the sense of finality that comes with contracting HIV. (In reality, even once HIV positive they will still need to practice safer sex.) Drug use can contribute to the progression of HIV infection towards clinical AIDS. For more information, visit http://www.posh-uk.org.uk/ and http://www.AIDSvideos.org/.