Health officials alarmed by syphilis outbreak

[MKSheppard]

http://www.cnn.com/2002/HEALTH/conditio ... index.html

Health officials alarmed by syphilis outbreak

ATLANTA (AP) --An increase in syphilis infections among gay and bisexual men in New York and elsewhere indicates they may be letting their guard down against sexually transmitted diseases, government health officials said this week.

Syphilis infections more than doubled in New York City last year, mostly among gay and bisexual men, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

"We have a different generation of young gay men -- a generation that didn't grow up with all their friends dying of AIDS," said New York's health commissioner, Thomas Frieden. "This tells us that risky sexual behavior is on the increase, particularly among men who have sex with men."

The increase suggests the men may be abandoning safe sex practices because life-extending AIDS-treatment drugs are more widely available, the CDC said. The transmission of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, is enhanced by sexually transmitted diseases.

"Increased sexual risk-taking might also be related to 'AIDS burnout,' which is associated with years of exposure to prevention messages and long-term efforts to maintain safer sex practices," the CDC said.

New York had 282 cases of syphilis in 2001, up from 117 in 2000, according to city health officials. Ninety-three percent of those cases were among men; of those, 79 percent reported having male sexual partners.

Outbreaks of syphilis among gay men also have been recorded in Seattle, Chicago, San Francisco and Miami since 1997, the CDC said.

The increase in syphilis cases in New York follows record lows recorded in 2000.

Syphilis appears first as a sore, usually on the genitals, then develops as a rash. It can be cured with penicillin, but left untreated it can damage the heart, eyes, brain and other parts of the body.

Copyright 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not
be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

[RayCav of ASVS]

and we care...how?

[Mr Bean]

and we care...how?

Well we have a great number of Gay and Bisexual people on this board(Hmm around fourty memebers?) and the news would be rather intresting to them

To the strait fokes here is even more reason(As if you did not have enough) not to get drunk pass out and wake up in the bed of a man who you though was a woman

[The Yosemite Bear]

Well after two decades of Silence=death and declining rates of STD's amoung Gays due in large part to the overwhelming amount of information about AIDS, the STD rate continued to remain the same in the upper class, and rise in the lower class. Cynacism has caught up with us, and people aren't believeing that it can happen to THEM.

[RayCav of ASVS]

and we care...how?

Well we have a great number of Gay and Bisexual people on this board(Hmm around fourty memebers?) and the news would be rather intresting to them

To the strait fokes here is even more reason(As if you did not have enough) not to get drunk pass out and wake up in the bed of a man who you though was a woman

True.

But seriously, I don't have any real reason to worry about this and any member of this forum, straight or not. All of use are smart enough to avoid this sort of thing.

And let's be realisitic. This is just more of Shep's gay bashing.

[Doomriser]

I just knew there'd be some Sheppardian twist to this. If it's not blacks or environmentalists ruining the world for Sheppard, it has to be gays. What's next? Are 'militant lesbos' responsible for West Nile Virus? Or would that be PETA? Why not make a "Do-it-yourself Mark Sheppard post' Just fill in the blanks.

____________ (gays, lesbos, PETA nutbars, environMENTALists, the JEW-UNITED States) responsible for Exxon Valdez disaster! Then fill in all of the horrible, un-american things that they were doing to cause the incident!