Open AccessReconciling Epidemiology and Social Justice in the Public Health Discourse Around the Sexual Networks of Black Men Who Have Sex With Men
Author(s) -
Derrick D. Matthews,
Justin C. Smith,
Brown Ae,
David J. Malebranche
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
american journal of public health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.284
H-Index - 264
eISSN - 1541-0048
pISSN - 0090-0036
DOI - 10.2105/ajph.2015.303031
Subject(s) - men who have sex with men , public health , epidemiology , social epidemiology , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) , economic justice , criminology , gender studies , sociology , environmental health , political science , medicine , gerontology , social determinants of health , family medicine , nursing , syphilis , law
Several studies have implicated the sexual networks of Black men who have sex with men (MSM) as facilitating disproportionally high rates of new HIV infections within this community. Although structural disparities place these networks at heightened risk for infection, HIV prevention science continues to describe networks as the cause for HIV disparities, rather than an effect of structures that pattern infection. We explore the historical relationship between public health and Black MSM, arguing that the current articulation of Black MSM networks is too often incomplete and counterproductive. Public health can offer a counternarrative that reconciles epidemiology with the social justice that informs our discipline, and that is required for an effective response to the epidemic among Black MSM.