London – To reach young gay men about the need for HIV testing, health advocates are turning to an unconventional messenger: gay dating apps on smartphones.
“The people that we are trying to reach are all on their sites,” said Jen Hecht, director of program development and operations f o r the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. “They have a captive audience.”
New infections for gay and bisexual males age 24 or younger surged 22 percent from 2008 to 2010, almost double the increase among all gay men, according to the US’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Health workers struggling to reach young men through traditional advertising have turned to the dating apps, which now let users declare their HIV status and generate reminders to get tested.
The approach has prompted thousands to visit clinics.
The San Francisco AIDS Foundation and the CDC coordinated an online campaign last month with several dating services to promote testing. The messages, which were donated by the app companies, were seen by 19 million users and more than 30,000 clicked through for more information, Hecht said.
Hornet and Jack’d are among dating apps that have undertaken their own awareness campaigns, deploying them in regions with less public discussion about the virus that causes AIDS.
In May, Hornet teamed with a local non-profit in the Philippines to send messages to 94,000 users about testing services, with links for online registration. More than 4,300 men responded, and 539 were HIV-positive, said Sean Howell, founder and chief executive officer of the San Francisco-based company.
Jack’d ran a similar campaign in Taiwan, where it has almost 82,000 users. Almost 30,000 people clicked through to the HIV message.
“Gay men are always on their phone, looking for other gay men,” said Howell, 34, who created Hornet after he realised how much time his friends spent online. “We have 4 million users worldwide who are at the highest risk for HIV and we have their attention.”
Dating apps are also changing how men with HIV signal they have the virus.
On Grindr and SCRUFF, users can join a “Poz,” or positive, community. That allows men to disclose they have HIV in a way that breaks down the stigma of having the virus, said Christian Grov, an associate professor of public health at Brooklyn College.
“It’s positive pride,” said Grov, whose research is funded by the National Institutes of Health. “It’s a community of guys who say ‘we support each other.’”
Hornet goes a step further, allowing users to put HIV status in their profiles. It recently added options that let men say whether they are taking PrEP – pre-exposure prophylaxis medicine that reduces the risk of contracting HIV -- or that they are positive but have an undetectable “viral load” in their blood.
Hornet users who say they are negative receive reminders to get tested every six months, and those in the U.S. are directed to the nearest clinic. Most list their status. Hornet has advertising, though it makes more money by selling premium accounts without ads.
Arthur Zey, who uses several sites, says he appreciates knowing the HIV status of potential partners. He’d rather know before meeting, to avoid an uncomfortable conversation later.
“I definitely think it’s a good idea,” said Zey, a 30- year-old San Francisco-area resident who lists his status as negative on Hornet. “I’m in favor of giving people tools to make their own informed decisions.”
The apps don’t permit narrowing a search to people who are HIV-free. That helps prevent the shunning of men with HIV, said Eleanor Briggs, assistant director of policy and campaigns at the U.K.’s National AIDS Trust.
Because test results may not be current, “you can’t be sure that you’re negative,” Briggs said. “It shouldn’t replace a conversation about safe sex.”
Only 30 percent of American gay men were tested in the last year, a Kaiser Family Foundation survey found.
The app features for HIV status reflect the nuanced reality for many gay men, Grov said. Beyond simply positive or negative, “we should have conversations about viral load,” he said. “It’s a much better option than what has existed for years.”
Some dating apps have decided not to allow users to disclose their status in profiles.
The information isn’t reliable and may be misused if it gets in the wrong hands, said David Novak, senior health strategist at Online Buddies Inc., the Cambridge, Massachusetts- based owner of Jack’d and Manhunt. “A profile isn’t a medical record.”
Besides encouraging education, researchers have tried unsuccessfully to figure out whether the ease of finding a date has increased infection rates. It’s possible that smartphone apps are just replacing other ways to meet, said David Purcell, who guides HIV prevention research for the CDC.
“People have been hooking up for a long time in lots of different ways,” he said. “This is just another venue.”
Washington Post-Bloomberg