Call for more to males to take survey
THE one-in-10 men who have sex with other males but claim they are not gay or bisexual are being urged to take part in a European survey.
Previous results from 2010 found more than 9% of the 3,000 polled here indicated they had sexual contact with other men but didn’t consider themselves gay or bisexual.
The figure was a lot lower than other European countries prompting authorities to believe it under-represented reality.
The Gay Health Network and HSE’S Health Protection Surveillance Centre are now calling for more men who have sex with men (MSM) here to complete the EMIS 2017 survey, which is due to end on January 31 this year.
Chairman of the Gay Health Network Ciaran Mckinney said: “With our network members and partners, HIV, STI services and LGBT community groups around the country and among MSM living with HIV, we are actively calling on MSM, living outside Dublin, those living with HIV and those not born in Ireland to take part in EMIS 2017 which is available in 33 languages.
“The findings from this as with previous research contributes to advances in services and support such as man2man.ie programme and ways of promoting safer sex and access to such things as testing and free condoms.”
Executive director of the Sexual Health Centre in Cork Martin Davoren said: “We actively promote and encourage MSM living in the Munster region to take part in the EMIS survey.”