| Human immunodeficiency virus | |
|---|---|
| Scanning electron micrograph of HIV-1 (in green) budding from cultured lymphocyte. Multiple round bumps on cell surface represent sites of assembly and budding of virions. | |
| Virus classification | |
| Group: | Group VI (ssRNA-RT) |
| Family: | Retroviridae |
| Genus: | Lentivirus |
| Species | |
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Bugchasing is a slang term for the alleged practice of pursuing sexual intercourse with HIV infected individuals in order to contract HIV. Individuals engaged in this activity are referred to as bugchasers. It is a form of self harm.
Bugchasers seek sexual partners who are HIV positive for the purpose of having unprotected sex and becoming HIV positive; giftgivers are HIV positive individuals who comply with the bugchaser's efforts to become infected with HIV.
Others dismiss the idea of bug chasers as urban legend.[1]
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Bugchasers indicate various reasons for this activity. Some bugchasers engage in the activity for the excitement inherent in pursuing such a dangerous activity, but do not implicitly desire to contract HIV.[2][3] Some researchers suggest that the behavior may stem from a "resistance to dominant heterosexual norms and mores" due to a defensive response by gay men to repudiate stigmatization and rejection by society.[3]
Some people consider bugchasing "intensely erotic" and the act of being infected as the "ultimate taboo, the most extreme sex act left.[2]" A number of people who are HIV negative and in a relationship with someone who is HIV positive seek infection as a way to remain in the relationship, particularly when the HIV positive partner may wish to break up to avoid infecting the HIV negative partner.
Some contend that this behaviour stems from feelings of inevitability towards HIV among the gay community and the empowerment of choosing when to contract the virus.[4] Others have suggested that some people who feel lonely desire the nurturing community that supports persons with AIDS.[3]
By design, bug chasing involves unprotected sex, but members of the bareback subculture are not necessarily bugchasers. The difference is intent:
| “ | In reviewing the scarce unpublished and published materials on bugchasing, as well as general healthcare speculations, a common theme appears- the lumping of bug chasers with barebackers...Although these two groups share some of the same practices, namely unprotected anal intercourse (UAI), there are distinctions that differentiate bug chasing...even though all bug chasers are indeed barebackers, not all barebackers are bugchasers.[5] | ” |
Over the past decade, researchers have endeavored to document, explain, and look for a solution to bug chasing. Dr. DeAnn Gauthier and Dr. Craig Forsyth put forth the first academic article in 1999. They explored the emerging trend of gay men who eschew condoms and the development of a barebacking subculture. They also noted through their qualitative research that some barebackers were in search of HIV.
Dr. Richard Tewksbury was one of the first researchers to acknowledge bug chasing online and that bug chasers were using the Internet to assist their seroconversion efforts. In his more recent research, he gave a strong analysis of what bug chasers and gift givers resemble in their behaviors, attitudes, and demographics.
Drs. Christian Grov and Jeffrey T. Parsons' (2006) research using the internet profiles of 1,228 bug chasers and gift givers identified six subsets of bug chasers and gift givers.
In total, Drs. Christian Grov and Jeffrey T. Parsons concluded that bug chasing and gift giving might occur among a select few individuals. Further, their research found that there was substantial variation in intentions to spread HIV (with some not intent on spreading HIV) among those who indicated they were gift givers or bug chasers.
Dr. Mark Blechner found that some bug chasers were lonely and alienated, and saw HIV as a path to becoming part of a community that elicits public sympathy and caretaking. Other bug chasers were so overwhelmed by the anxiety of contracting HIV that they thought it would be a relief from that anxiety to become HIV-positive and "get it over with." And most recently, Dr. David Moskowitz, Dr. Catriona MacLeod and Dr. Michael Roloff attempted to quantitatively explain why bug chasers chase HIV. They claimed that individuals who look for HIV are more likely sex addicts. These individuals have exhausted the sexual high they previously derived by performing other sexual risk taking behaviors, and now turn to bug chasing to achieve the risk-oriented high.
Dr. Bruce D. LeBlanc (2007) conducted an exploratory study involving survey responses from self identified bug chasers, one of the first published studies involving direct responses from this identified group. His findings challenge "common sense" and research findings regarding bug chasers. Examining psychological and social motivations for seeking HIV the most frequent response was that individuals could not identify a psychological (internal thought process) or social (interactions with others) factor for seeking HIV. Regarding motivations for seeking infection the most frequent response was seeing becoming infected as a thrill, hot, or erotic, as well as seeing the semen through a similar lens. Few respondents identified "getting it over with" as a motivating factor.
Some limited identification of becoming part of the "community" or "brotherhood" was identified. Other variables studied included methods for finding partners, sexual behaviors undertaken while seeking infection, average number of sexual partners, length of time for which they will seek infection and life event changes if they were successful in becoming infected with HIV.
Bugchasing has, more recently, been taken more seriously by medical health promotion bodies, such as the Centers for Disease Control, which hosted a workshop on the topic, hosted by Dr. Michael Graydon of Carleton University, Ottawa, at the 2004 National STD Prevention Conference.
The bugchasing/giftgiving phenomenon gained press coverage and notoriety after Rolling Stone magazine printed an article in 2003 by a freelance journalist, Gregory Freeman, entitled "Bug Chasers: The men who long to be HIV+".[6] The article quoted San Francisco health services director Dr. Bob Cabaj as saying that as many as twenty-five percent of new HIV infections a year (about ten thousand people) were from men who had contracted it on purpose.[6][7][8] Cabaj disputed the quotes attributed to him but Rolling Stone remains behind the story.[7][8][9][10] Dr. Marshall Forstein, the medical director of mental health and addiction services at Boston's Fenway Community Health, was reported to have said that the clinic regularly saw bug-chasers and warned that it was growing.[6][11] He called the statements "entirely a fabrication," but Rolling Stone also stood behind them.[11][12] Steven Weinstein, then editor of the New York Blade, an established gay newspaper, called the article "less than truthful" and attributed it to a Rolling Stone editor (whom he did not name) recently recruited from a competing "lad mag" who wished to make a sensation for himself.[13]
Following the article, the Human Rights Campaign put out an action alert, calling its members to "PROTEST ROLLING STONE'S IRRESPONSIBLE 'BUG CHASING.'"[14] Critics criticized the use of the disputed figures by conservative organizations;[15] for example, The Traditional Values Coalition used the article to urge the Centers for Disease Control to cut down on its AIDS funding.[10]
Writer Daniel Hill outlined a scenario where such behavior might occur:
| “ | In private sex clubs across the U.S. men gather for a chance to participate in what is called Russian Roulette. Ten men are invited, nine are HIV−, one is HIV+. The men have agreed to not speak of AIDS, nor HIV. They participate in as many unsafe sexual encounters with each other as possible, thus increasing their chances to receive "the bug." These are the men known as 'Bug Chasers.'" [16] | ” |
Writer/director Daniel Bort made a 2003 short film on the subject called Bugchaser, which premièred at the 16th Annual Austin Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, and was shot mainly in New York sex clubs. In an interview with the Austin Chronicle, he explained: "The matter-of-fact declarations of a string of articulate, apparently nonsensical people … affected me tremendously. I had to find out the reasons why such individuals will seek suicide in this almost symbolic way." At the Austin G&L Film Festival, the film was shown with an accompanying documentary The Gift by Louise Hogarth.
HIV positive man Ricky Dyer, who investigated the apparent bug chasing phenomenon for a 2006 BBC programme, I love being HIV+, said that an air of complacency about the realities of living with the virus may be one reason why infection rates have been rising.[17] However, the BBC also described bugchasing as more internet fantasy than reality, saying that, "Dyer finds that the overwhelming majority of the talk is pure fantasy." The article also quotes Will Nutland, head of health promotion at Terrence Higgins Trust, as saying, "The concepts of 'gift giving' and 'bug chasers' are definitely based more in fantasy than reality" as well as Deborah Jack, chief executive of the National AIDS Trust saying, "There is very little evidence of people trying to get infected with HIV."
In the Showtime series Queer as Folk a former student of Professor Ben Bruckner, asked Ben to infect him with HIV, wanting to experience "the gift." Ben refuses and writes a novel about the incident.
In the NBC series ER, season 7 episode 13 Dr Malucci treats a gay man who wants to contract HIV from his positive partner. Malucci asked the HIV- patient if he is 'bug chasing'
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