Surge in chemsex parties arranged on ‘hook-up’ apps is fuelling fresh HIV epidemic in European cities, doctors warn
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails
Sign up to our free breaking news emails
A surge in “chemsex” parties, where some people spend days getting high on drugs and having sex with scores of partners, is refuelling epidemics of HIV among gay men in European towns and cities, doctors say.
“Chemsex is very pervasive now – it’s a growing phenomenon,” said Rusi Jaspal, a professor of psychology and sexual health at De Montfort University in Leicester who has been studying the spread of HIV and the chemsex scene.
At a London conference hosted by the International Association of Providers of AIDS Care (IAPAC), the group’s president Jose Zuniga, described chemsex as a “challenge of proportions we cannot fully comprehend at this time”.
A subset of chemsex is known as “slamsex”, where partygoers self-inject drugs rather than taking them as pills or via pipes.
The drugs “reduce inhibitions and increase feelings of horniness or lust”, Mr Jaspal said, and contribute to “a perfect storm” in groups with high HIV rates for the virus to spread.
In a small study published in 2014 of people attending HIV clinics in England and Wales, 30 per cent of HIV-positive men surveyed reported chemsex in the previous year, and 10 per cent said they had engaged in slamsex.
Ignacio Labayen de Inza, a chemsex specialist who works at several UK clinics and online as a counsellor for men seeking help, says “things have got much worse” since then.
“It’s not just a UK thing,” he told Reuters during the IAPAC conference. “It’s in Amsterdam, Berlin, Munich, Rome, Kiev, Moscow, Helsinki – and in many of what people call ‘gay destinations’, like Ibiza, Torremolinos, the Canary Islands.”
A Spain-based study last year found that of almost 750 HIV-positive men surveyed, 60 per cent reported having unprotected anal sex and 62 per cent had been diagnosed with an STI. Rates of infections and high-risk sexual behaviour were higher among the 30 per cent who reported having engaged in chemsex or slamsex.
✕
Britons most likely to combine sex and drugs, study shows
Globally, the fight against HIV and AIDS has made dramatic progress in the past decade. According to the UNAIDS agency, 1.7 million people were newly infected with HIV in 2018, a 16 per cent drop since 2010, driven mostly by reducing HIV rates in Africa.
The human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS can’t be cured, but can be kept in check for decades with cocktails of highly effective antiviral medicines. It’s partly this advance that is behind the high-risk practice of chemsex, said Mr de Inza.
“People are not scared any more of HIV,” he said. “Many people I see say they think ‘it’s only a matter of time anyway, so I might as well have some fun’.”
Shannon Hader, deputy director of UNAIDS, says the key to limiting chemsex and its consequences is to get the right protection messages and methods to those who need them.
Encouraging use of HIV prevention drugs known as PreP, or pre-exposure prophylaxis, is one effective step, she said, and can give people who have chemsex some control over their health.
“In this epidemic, we always have to be looking for what’s coming next that we’re not addressing,” she said. “And with PreP, we need to ensure we’re not missing people in the chemsex environment.”
Reuters
Register for free to continue reading
Registration is a free and easy way to support our truly independent journalism
By registering, you will also enjoy limited access to Premium articles, exclusive newsletters, commenting, and virtual events with our leading journalists
Registration is a free and easy way to support our truly independent journalism
By registering, you will also enjoy limited access to Premium articles, exclusive newsletters, commenting, and virtual events with our leading journalists
Join our new commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies