HIV-dating app link

An "explosion" in the use of mobile phone dating apps has helped drive a surge in HIV infections among teenage boys and young men in Asia, according to a new United Nations report.

An "explosion" in the use of mobile phone dating apps has helped drive a surge in HIV infections among teenage boys and young men in Asia, according to a new United Nations report.

Researchers from UN agencies identified a "hidden epidemic" of HIV among adolescents aged 15-19 in the Asia-Pacific region. Although HIV infections are falling overall across the region, they are soaring among young males in the most at-risk populations.

In the report, the experts estimated that 50,000 (or 15 per cent) of the new 340,000 HIV infections in the region involved males in their late teens. They said that among the factors contributing to the increase in casual unsafe sex among adolescents in the region is the popularity of mobile dating apps.

"The explosion of smart phone gay dating apps has expanded the options for casual spontaneous sex as never before," said the authors of Adolescents: Under the Radar in the Asia-Pacific Aids Response.

Wing-Sie Cheng, HIV/Aids adviser for Unicef in east Asia and the Pacific, said that the smartphone apps were "definitely enabling" an increase in risky behaviour, such as multiple sexual partners and inconsistent condom use.

There are now believed to be about 220,000 adolescents living with HIV in the region, with the hubs of new infections in large cities such as Bangkok, Hanoi and Jakarta.

But compiling accurate data is difficult as many countries in the region require anyone under 18 to obtain parental permission for an HIV test and many teenagers are not tested because they do not want to ask for their parents' consent.

The scale of the epidemic only became clear as experts studied figures for HIV-related deaths among young males.

"They are being robbed of the opportunity for treatment as they are not being tested so do not know their status," said Cheng. "We are also talking about young people who sometimes feel invincible or who often do not have the life experience to make decisions on condoms or resist pressure from older partners." Telegraph Group Ltd