Half of the 19 new HIV cases reported in southeastern Idaho were linked to couples who met on the Internet, The Associated Press reports. According to the Southeastern District Health Department, 10 men and one woman tested HIV positive during the past three weeks and each case traced back to online dating.
According to the article, the department is considering offering more clinics for testing, as the number of HIV cases for the region has doubled since last year. David Hachey, MD, from the Pocatello Family Medicine Clinic, said more people in general are willing to take part in risky sexual behavior because of improvements in HIV/AIDS meds and the perception that it has become a far more manageable illness.
“A lot of the fear we saw in the 1980s and 1990s of people dying, now we’re just not seeing that,” Dr. Hachey said. “People in this community think they’re immune to some of these bigger problems, which in fact they’re not.”
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