Welcome  to  Public  Health  Moment from  the  University  of  Minnesota. 32  states  have  laws  that  make  it  a crime  to  transmit  HIV  to  other  individuals, but  have  these  laws,  many  of  them on  the  books  for  more  than  20  years, effectively  reduced  high  risk  sexual  behavior? No,  According  to  a  new  study involving  more  than  1,700  men, the  study  was  led  by  Keith  Horvath, an  assistant  Professor  of Epidemiology  at  the  University  of  Minnesota. Probably  the  most  interesting  finding  from  our  study was  that  we  found  that  a, regardless  of  people's  attitudes  toward  these  laws, that  their  risk  behavior  didn't  change  at  all. There  were  no  significant  differences in  their  sexual  risk  behavior, whether  or  not  they  thought  it  should  be  illegal  or  not. Horvath  next  wants  to  look at  whether  these  laws  might  actually be  counterproductive  to  HIV  prevention  efforts. The  research  generally  shows  that  the  laws don't  have  any  effect  on  risk  behavior. But  what  we  don't  know  is  whether  or  not  these  laws  might actually  act  as  barriers  to  getting  tested  for  HIV. Or  whether  these  laws  might  act  as  barriers  to disclosure  of  HIV  status or  even  accessing  appropriate  care. And  so  I  think  that's  really the  next  step  in  where  we  need  to  go  with this  line  of  research  for public  health  Moment,  I'm  Mark  Ankersen.