Gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (MSM) have adapted their sexual practices over the course of the HIV/AIDS epidemic based on available data and knowledge about HIV. This study sought to identify and compare patterns in condom use among gay, bisexual, and other MSM who were tested for HIV at a community-based testing site in Montreal, Canada. Results showed that while study participants use condoms to a certain extent with HIV-positive partners and partners of unknown HIV status, they also make use of various other strategies such as adjusting to a partner’s presumed or known HIV status and viral load, avoiding certain types of partners, taking PEP, and getting tested for HIV. These findings suggest that MSM who use condoms less systematically are not necessarily taking fewer precautions but may instead be combining or replacing condom use with other approaches to risk reduction.

Background-Previous studies estimating the fraction of transmissions from persons with primary HIV have not focused on the effects of switching sex role in male homosexual populations. Such behavioral fluctuations can increase the contribution of primary HIV in the overall population.

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A review of Complexity Theory and the Social Sciences, An Introduction, by David Byrne, 1998. New York: Routledge, 206 pp. ISBN 0415162963. $44.95 USD.

En mettant sur pied SPOT, une recherche intervention en prévention du VIH, on aborde un monde complexe, investigué et influencé par plusieurs soins. Les milieux gais et homosexuels d'aujourd'hui sont coconstruits avec ceux du sida, sans indépendance. Pour mettre en perspective le milieu dans lequel une intervention se produit, nous construisons une modélisation de la complexité manifeste du contexte. Nous envisageons ainsi les complexes détours nécessaires à intervenir et communiquer dans le milieu gai et des hommes ayant des relations sexuelles avec d'autres hommes (HARSAH) de Montréal. Le modèle original résultant s'inspire d'un modèle de Foucault (1966), il montre et rappelle l'importance de maintenir une perspective de complexité dans la communication sociale et publique que SPOT emploiera. La modélisation ou représentation vient placer les rôles et nécessaires interactions dans la prévention actuelle dans les milieux gais de Montréal. Mots-clés : VIH ; prévention ; test rapide VIH ; modélisaton du contexte ; complexité ; Foucault ; gais ; gays ; Montréal.Building SPOT, a research intervention in HIV prevention, we get in a complex world, researched, influenced by many discourses and care. Gay and homosexual milieus are today co-constructed with AIDS and are not mutually independent. To create a look out on the intervention context, we build a model of this complex context and care for the ways to intervene and communicate in the gay Montreal milieu as well as MSM (men who have sex with men) milieus. This original model is inspired by Foucault (1966), it shows and recalls the necessity to keep a complex perspective in social and public communication of SPOT. Model creation (representing) allowed roles and necessary interactions clarification in actual prevention in Montreal gay world.