Dating apps and porn could cause an 'explosion' in HIV cases

Young people using Tinder could soon trigger a surge in HIV cases because they're more likely to have anal sex and change partners regularly.

An NHS sexual health consultant has warned of a 'chain reaction' of HIV cases if dating app-obsessed millennials don't make sure they use condoms.

Apps like Tinder make it easier for people to switch sexual partners quickly, meaning they can catch more STIs.

And internet porn is increasing the number of straight couples having anal sex, Dr Peter Greenhouse said, which is more likely to spread HIV.

Dr Greenhouse, a sexual health consultant in Bristol, said there could be an 'explosion' of cases of the incurable infection.

He told the Daily Star: 'I worry in the grand scheme of things that if enough young heterosexual people change partners frequently enough and have unprotected sex then at some point there is going to be quite a bit more HIV around in the heterosexual community.'

The NHS has already seen a rise in more treatable infections, which some experts have pinned on the rise of dating apps.

Before apps such as Tinder, people had to meet face-to-face before agreeing to have sex, and would have been more likely to be embarrassed about casual relations.

And Dr Greenhouse added a generation of young people who are learning about sex from internet porn are more likely to have unprotected or anal sex.

The two together could cause a 'nuclear reaction' of spreading HIV, he said, because people can switch partners within days when it most infectious.

'Dating apps increase how quickly people can change from one partner to the next or have concurrent relationships,' Dr Greenhouse explained.

'The app takes the initial embarrassment away and means they are far more likely to start new relationships.

'There's nothing intrinsically wrong with that but [Tinder users] are changing partners more frequently which means by definition there will be more infections.'

Dr Greenhouse added larger numbers of people watching internet porn has normalised anal sex among heterosexual people.

And because the rectum 'isn't designed to take the knocks' of sex, the tissue is more likely to be damaged, increasing the risk of spreading STIs.  

Anal sex carries a 10 times higher risk of infection with HIV than vaginal.

This is because cells in the anus are more susceptible to HIV, and fluid in semen and the anus's lining carry more HIV than vaginal secretions.

This is why men who have sex with men are among the people most at risk of HIV in the UK.

'[Porn] dramatically increases the acceptability and pressure to perform rectal sex,' Dr Greenhouse told The Star.

'Heterosexually, you are more likely to get HIV because more people are doing more rectal sex with more people.

'Unless people are absolutely meticulous about using condoms for rectal sex, it is inevitable there will be more HIV transitions.'

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