Fisher was the principle investigator on a recently completed quantitative study that resulted in a paper published in the journal AIDS and Behavior titled “Patient-Provider Communication Barriers and Facilitators to HIV and STI Preventive Services for Adolescent MSM.” In the study, Fisher found that young males who have sex with males were reticent to discuss sex with their doctors. But when doctors initiated the conversation, they were more forthcoming with vital information that could affect their health.

The nationwide study was conducted anonymously via a  questionnaire linked to from a trusted website frequented by gay teens. It surveyed 198 adolescent gay males. Several participants said they completed the survey because they wanted to help their community.

“This is the first study to ask kids about their attitudes on getting sexual health care,” said Fisher, who directs Fordham’s Center for Ethics Education. “Pediatricians and general practitioners are the gateway of youth experiences with health care, but [these patients]only go once a year, so this is an ideal time to ask [about their sexual activity].”

Fisher said there are several studies that have found that most doctors are not trained to ask questions relevant to sexual minorities, and many doctors assume the youth they treat are straight. Furthermore, the language of sexuality has evolved for young people.

“The other issue is that doctors should not use terms like ‘gay,’ or ‘LGBT,’ because for many young people the terminology is in flux,” said Fisher. “Youth no longer identify with these traditional behaviors; the question should be ‘Who are you attracted to sexually?’”

But most importantly, Fisher said, the conversation needs to be initiated by the doctors, even though doctors often have the “misperception that the kid would be uncomfortable.”

“Physicians need to be well versed in safety advice and should be able to communicate to all,” she said. “The kids don’t bring it up because they think the doctor will be prejudiced.”

Another concern among the young men was that the doctors might tell their parents, but Fisher said most states allow doctors to provide information to teens on sexual health, including HIV prevention, without parental consent. Some states, like New York, even allow doctors to prescribe PrEP, the pill that protects against HIV, to minors without getting parents involved.

“The grey area is if the child is having sex with an adult that might be considered sexual abuse and that needs to be reported,” said Fisher.

But such cases only reinforce the need for doctors need to be proactive in their conversations with youth, she said. Even if the relationship is legal and consensual, some youth lack assertiveness skills to demand a condom from an older or aggressive peer partner, she said.

“They need advice specific to males having sex with males,” said Fisher. “Giving gay males advice on sex with females is useless, but when they’re aware of those specifics they’ll be safer and healthier.”

Four years later, he’s back in the news, as he revealed he is HIV positive in a TODAY interview with Matt Lauer.

“It’s a hard three letters to absorb. It’s a turning point in one’s life,” the 50-year-old actor said to Lauer.

Human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, is living inside the bodies of an estimated 35 million people worldwide. In the United States, 1.2 million people are living with HIV and the U.S. fails to prevent about another 50,000 infections every year. (source)

What does this high profile celebrity having HIV mean for the stigma often associated with the virus, or how the public is educated on the disease?

Fordham’s Celia Fisher, PhD, the director of both Fordham’s Center for Ethics Education and the HIV and Drug Abuse Prevention Research Ethics Training Institute, said a lot has changed since 1991, when NBA great Magic Johnson announced he was HIV positive.

“For those in countries where medication is widely available becoming HIV positive has become a chronic disease, rather than a death sentence on a path towards AIDS,” she said. “The risk of becoming infected has also been reduced through HIV prevention medications such as PrEP (Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis) that can prevent the acquisition of HIV, as well as evidence that taking certain HIV medications can lessen the risk of further transmission. There is also growing interest in using emerging technologies for HIV prevention, such as mobile health text reminders to take medication and the use of social media to increase HIV health literacy.”

Despite these medical gains, Fisher said, sexual and gender minority youth in the United States, and women in countries with extreme gender inequities and other marginalized populations, do not have access to these treatments.

“These inequities raise ethical challenges for public health policy makers, health providers, and medical and social behavioral researchers,” Fisher said. “The Fordham University HIV and Drug Abuse Prevention Research Ethics Training Institute is dedicated to training researchers how to uncover and address the causes of these inequities to create an AIDS-free world.”

To learn more about the hard data generated by the HIV and Drug Abuse Prevention Research Ethics Training Institute at Fordham—the only one of its kind, read this piece from last November.

For more information on HIV, see this article by Fordham alumnus, Mathew Rodriguez (FCLC ’11), in Mic.

These and other topics will be the focus of a daylong Fordham Law School conference on Thursday, Feb. 24 at the Lincoln Center campus, “Civil Society and Legal Activism in China: The Public Health Challenge.” The event is free and sponsored by the Leitner Center for International Law and Justice.

The conference gets underway at 9:30 a.m. in the 12th Floor Lounge of the Lowenstein Center, and consists of four panels throughout the day: Civil Society in China, Regulation and Practice; Anti-Discrimination Efforts in China; Public Participation Toward a Responsive Health System and China; and China: The Response to HIV/AIDS.

Scholars and activists who will be speaking include Timothy Webster, senior fellow at the China Law Center, Yale University; Benjamin Liebman, professor of law and director of Center for Chinese Legal Studies at Columbia University; Scott Burris, professor of law, Temple University and associate director of the Center for Law and the Public’s Health; Wan Yanhai, director of Beijing’s Aizhixing Institute; and Sara L.M. Davis, executive director of Asia Catalyst.

For more information or to register, contact Joy Chia [email protected].

—Janet Sassi