I agree with the points raised. Also fear based public health messaging often backfires... however, because of this iffy AIDS campaign the rise of HIV and condom use is being widely discussed today.

This campaign looks like its designed to target young men (where a lot of new infections are taking place) using those rare but but possible secondary complications that have a high gross out factor and are EXTREMELY memorable.

Dan, if you get a chance please read my email and other comments. Only the best will do, YOU are the best and we really need you on this.

You are the best Dan.

Muwah! xoxox

This is why it reminds me a bit about the scare tactics of the war on drugs. You lose all credibility if you use false or misleading information. After decades of propaganda, I have pretty good bullshit detectors... for both drug issues and sex issues.

But what's the rate of anal cancer among gay men who are HIV+? Doesn't HIV increase the odds of getting cancer, especially cancer caused by a virus?

While what he says about there being a vaccine to prevent HPV infection is true, it needs to be given during puberty, before the subject begins to be sexually active. This is for both boys and girls. It is not effective for sexually active adults, since most have already been exposed. If you have ever had anal or vaginal warts get routine screening.

So, get your kids, both sexes, vaccinated.

The truth hurts and always creates a knee jerk.....

@1: Compromised immunity, and the fact that the HIV-positive population of gay men has a significant proportion of men who are or were at one time lax about consistent condom use (not ALL HIV-pos gay men, some people contract HIV despite taking precautions), which means a higher incidence of HPV transmission to the anus. Perhaps 28 times as high? If anything can be said, it's that HIV infection is a weak predictor of anal cancer and not a cause or prepositional factor.

@6: That's not completely true. The vaccine is only effective at the listed rates if administered to people who have not been sexually active, because some sexually active persons will have already contracted a strain of HPV. However, not everyone who is sexually active has ever contracted HPV (those really high statistics of the infection rates are for the percentage of adults who have ever contracted HPV, as we test for antibodies; because the body clears the virus in an awful lot of cases, this does not represent the rate infected individuals, and even then the results are going to be weighted in such a way that older segments of the population will display higher rates of positive antibody tests). Additionally, the vaccine protects against a number of different strains of the virus, so even if one has already contracted one strain, one can still be protected from the others. In short, everyone who ever plans on having sex at some point in the future should get the vaccine.

@9 that is good info, thanks.