editorial comment Of course, old heterosexual men would never, ever think of Viagra as a recreational substance!

The anti-impotence drug Viagra could be reclassified in the USA, in a bid to limit the links between gay men who use it and sexually transmitted diseases.

According to the Reuters news agency, San Francisco's Department of Public Health has petitioned the country's Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to review the issues surrounding the prescription drug.

The move comes after a study last year revealed growing numbers of gay men using Viagra recreationally, and also the link between this use and the rise in STDs.

A study in the US city in 2002 found that a third of gay and bisexual men who visited STD clinics reported using Viagra recreationally.

Additionally, 28% of the Viagra users took it with speed, 43% with Ecstasy and 15% with nitrates, or poppers, something that researchers believe could result in creating an environment that could facilitate unsafe sex.

Researchers also believe that the drug is being used to counteract some of the negative effects of drugs.

Of the HIV positive gay and bisexual men who visited the clinic in the 2002 study, half of those who used Viagra were diagnosed with a new STD, while the number of HIV positive men who did not use Viagra was nearly half of this.

HIV positive men often use the drug to help with sexual dysfunction issues, but more and more HIV negative gay men are reported to be using Viagra despite having no medical condition.

"The predominant problem that we see in San Francisco is that widespread use among gay men with multiple partners," Jeffrey Klausner form San Francisco's health department - and the man behind the original study - told Reuters.

But the idea of a warning was criticised by the drug's manufacturers, Pfizer.

"Ultimately the people have to decide the kind of behaviour they are going to engage in that will minimise the risk," spokesman Daniel Watts told the agency.

Ben Townley, Gay.com UK
Tuesday 24 August, 2004

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