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Is Bug Chasing Really Real?

by — Last updated: 2014-09-25 in Autoimmune diseases

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HIV treatment has come a long way, and infected people now have a higher chance of living a long and relatively healthy life than ever before. Still, you might be shocked when you hear that some people actually want the virus.

Drs Christian Grov and Jeffrey T Parsons conducted a study using the internet profiles of 1,228 so-called "bug chasers" and "gift givers", which was completed in 2006. Through this research, the team identified six different categories of bug chasers and gift givers.


"Committed bug chasers" were (self-reported) HIV-negative people who sought HIV-positive partners.

Though these made up only 7.5 percent of the total sample, more than half of them also said they preferred to be the "bottom", in other words the anal receptive partner. This is the sexual position that is associated with the highest risk of HIV transmission. 

Just over 12 percent of the sample could be described as "opportunistic bug chasers". These were HIV-negative men who indicated that their partner's HIV status was not relevant to them. "Committed gift givers" were HIV-positive men who sought HIV-negative partners.

The fact that only five men — not five percent, but five individuals — fell into this category should demonstrate that HIV-positive people are much more aware than their negative counterparts that the virus is no gift.

"Opportunistic gift givers" were HIV-positive men who indicated their partner's status didn't matter to them. Judging by the fact that they were identifiable as HIV-positive, these men did not hide their status from their partners. They made up 26 percent of the sample. 

"Serosorters" were people whose profiles said they were bug chasers or gift givers. In practice, however, they only chose people who indicated they had the same status. The "ambiguous" and final category was made up of people who were unaware of their HIV status and could therefore not be termed either bug chasers or gift givers.

But Really?

Ricky Dyer, a HIV-positive British man working for the BBC, wanted to find out more about this phenomenon. Bug chasing has received mainstream media coverage and is being discussed on the internet fairly openly. During the making of his documentary I Love Being HIV+, Dyer had no trouble encountering people who were willing to share stories about bug chasers. Some graphically described how negative men seeking the virus maximized their chances of being infected by having unprotected sex with large numbers of positive men.

Dyer's documentary is very much worth watching if you're interested in finding out more about bug chasing. He set up an internet profile in which he indicated that he was HIV-positive and invited "chasers" to contact him. They started contacting him almost right away.

See Also: HIV/AIDS Infected?: Do not panic, read this!

He did talk to quite a few negative men who said they were chasers and even met up with one, but he found that none really wanted a barebacking encounter — just as well, because Dyer is in a committed relationship and was certainly not interested in "gift giving". He just wanted to do research.

Though his methods were hardly scientific, they came much closer to unveiling the truth behind the bug chasing stories than many others. Here he was, a HIV-positive man seemingly offering himself up, but there appeared to be no actual takers. The conclusion? Bug chasing might exist. It largely appeared to be an elaborate and disgusting urban myth, however.

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