Charlie Sheen’s HIV disclosure may reinvigorate awareness, prevention of HIV

The day last November when actor Charlie Sheen disclosed he had the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) saw the greatest number of HIV-related searches on Google, according to an article published online by JAMA Internal Medicine. Researchers who used Google Trends to gather internet searches on that day for analysis think Sheen’s disclosure may rekindle awareness […]

The day last November when actor Charlie Sheen disclosed he had the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) saw the greatest number of HIV-related searches on Google, according to an article published online by JAMA Internal Medicine.
Researchers who used Google Trends to gather internet searches on that day for analysis think Sheen’s disclosure may rekindle awareness and prevention of HIV, according to John Ayers,  of San Diego State University, California, who along with co-authors published the article in the Journal of American Medical Association.
Since 2004, news reports about HIV had decreased from 67 stories per 1,000 to 12 stories per 1,000 in 2015.
On the day of Sheen’s disclosure, there was a 265 percent increase in news reports mentioning HIV, with more than 6,500 stories on Google News alone, making it among the top 1 percent of HIV-related media days in the past seven years, according to the results.