In answer to 999's question a few posts ago: I live in a British city with a very large gay population. There are all sorts of programmes, campaigns, information sources and facilities which target high-risk groups (this category includes gay men but also others).

I have friends who work in HIV-related healthcare and they tell me that many gay men who are HIV-positive now live much longer because of the increased availability of medication (which doesn't of course cure the condition but helps to manage the symptoms). Indeed one HIV-positive friend of mine was diagnosed as long ago as 1990 but happily is still alive & pretty well thanks to the pills he takes.

The only downside of the availability of medication is that a foolish minority young gay men (late teens or thereabouts) think they don't need to worry about adopting safer sex practices because the medication is there and will 'sort them out'.

The cost of the medication is also outlandish - drug companies make *huge* profits out of HIV.

One of the most-at-risk groups these days is men who have sex with men but do not identify as gay (and are often in marriages with women). These people are less likely to access the programmes/campaigns/etc as they don't want to risk being labelled as gay (which I guess they're not, really).