Chan ASW, Tang PMK, Yan E. Chemsex and its risk factors associated with human immunodeficiency virus among men who have sex with men in Hong Kong . World J Virol 2022; 11(4): 208-211 [PMID: 36159612 DOI: 10.5501/wjv.v11.i4.208]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Elsie Yan, PhD, Professor, Department of Applied Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong 999077, China. elsie.yan@polyu.edu.hk
Research Domain of This Article
Psychiatry
Article-Type of This Article
Letter to the Editor
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Virol. Jul 25, 2022; 11(4): 208-211 Published online Jul 25, 2022. doi: 10.5501/wjv.v11.i4.208
Chemsex and its risk factors associated with human immunodeficiency virus among men who have sex with men in Hong Kong
Alex Siu Wing Chan, Patrick Ming Kuen Tang, Elsie Yan
Alex Siu Wing Chan, Elsie Yan, Department of Applied Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong 999077, China
Patrick Ming Kuen Tang, Department of Anatomical and Cellular Pathology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, China
Author contributions: Chan ASW and Yan E carried out the outline of this manuscript; Chan ASW wrote the manuscript with support from Yan E and Tang PMK; Yan E and Tang PMK gave valuable comments and suggestion; Yan E helped to supervise the whole manuscript; All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Elsie Yan, PhD, Professor, Department of Applied Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong 999077, China. elsie.yan@polyu.edu.hk
Received: January 26, 2022 Peer-review started: January 26, 2022 First decision: May 30, 2022 Revised: June 8, 2022 Accepted: June 23, 2022 Article in press: June 23, 2022 Published online: July 25, 2022 Processing time: 176 Days and 15.3 Hours
Abstract
We were intrigued by Hanum et al, who published a study on the prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in homosexual, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men at sexual health clinics in England and the relationship between baseline variables and future HIV occurrence. Chemically-enhanced sexual experience (chemsex) is becoming a global phenomenon. There are increasing medical and academic concerns about chemsex, where substances are used to boost sexual satisfaction, which is prevalent in groups, especially among homosexuals. Lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgenders, and queers have become increasingly visible, valued, and committed community. However, chemsex requires urgent attention.
Core Tip: The human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome epidemic and substance abuse have become global concerns in Hong Kong and everywhere else. It is our opinion that chem-sex exposes the risk factor and affects the men who have sex with men (MSM) subset of homosexual men and other MSM.
