Syphilis Skyrockets In U.S.
Up 12% Among Gay/Bisexual Men; 7th-Straight Year Of Increases After Being Nearly Eliminated
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Meanwhile, a CDC study found that tests for another common STD -gonorrhea - miss one in three infections among men who have sex with men.
Those findings alone are troubling enough. But the picture becomes bleaker against the background of a surging HIV epidemic.
"This increase in syphilis represents a major concern for the health of gay and bisexual men," Kevin Fenton, M.D., director of the CDC's HIV/AIDS center, said at a news conference. "STDs increase HIV transmission. And if a person is already HIV infected, syphilis can increase viral load [a measure of HIV activity in the body]."
Fenton announced the new STD data at this week's National STD Prevention Conference in Chicago.
Syphilis Surges Again
The syphilis numbers are shocking because just a decade ago, the U.S. was on the verge of eliminating the disease. Now 3.7 out of every 100,000 Americans - and 6.4 out of every 100,000 American males - carry the infection, which can cause blindness, brain damage, and death if untreated.
Rates among men are six times higher than rates among women. This, Fenton said, is largely because of huge increases in syphilis infections among men who have sex with men. About 60 percent of all recent U.S. syphilis infections occurred in these men.
African-Americans continue to be disproportionately affected by syphilis. Syphilis rates are six times higher for African-American men than among white men, and 13 times higher for African-American women than for white women.
Gonorrhea Test Misses Gay/Bi Men
Syphilis and HIV aren't the only diseases spread mainly by unsafe sex. Gonorrhea is also on the rise. One factor, a CDC study suggests, is that doctors miss more than one in three gonorrhea infections in HIV negative gay and bisexual men.
The problem seems to be that doctors aren't testing men who have sex with men in all three body sites where they are likely to be infected: the penis (urethra), the rectum, and the throat.
CDC researcher Kristen C. Mahle, M.P.H., and colleagues found that doctors miss more than one in three rectal gonorrhea infections, one in four throat infections, and one in 10 urethral infections in men who have sex with men.
Part of the problem is that the most effective tests for gonorrhea are nucleic acid amplification tests or NAATs. These tests are FDA approved for testing for gonorrhea infections in the urethra. But they are not approved for testing the throat or rectum.
Julius Schachter, Ph.D., of the University of California, San Francisco, reported to the conference that NAAT tests work very well in screening men's throats and rectums for gonorrhea and for chlamydia.
John Douglas, M.D., director of the CDC's STD center, said the CDC would work with the FDA to gain approval of expanded use of NAATs.
"NAATs detect twice as many gonorrhea and chlamydia infections as bacterial culture tests," Douglas said at the news conference. "FDA clearance of NAATs would allow for their widespread use in medical settings."
By Daniel DeNoon
Reviewed by Louise Chang
©2005-2006 WebMD, Inc. All rights reserved.



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See all 75 Commentsthat mindless vote begot GW Bush and his faith based initiative;
which begot abstinance only *** education, thanks to
our evangelical morons at the christian church;
and now we have America, the evangelical AmeriKa;
we have STDs rampant, underage pregnancy rampant,
the economy out of control and wars that never end; and starting more wars that never end; to please the greed driven republiCOPN Fascist party,
all the money paid to these christians was borrowed from the godless chinese communist government
thanks a lot republiCON evangelical fascists
you all belong in prison
Posted by mudrose
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It will? I recall reading a local glbt magazine a few years ago; the article, written by a g man, not asking when they would get the rights, but if they were "ready" for them. If a hetero man wrote it, you could imagine all the slurs of "HOMOPHOBIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!" that would come down as a result...
Doesn''t matter if I post even the magazine title, there are typically two types of responses.
Boy, those freakangelicals must be awfully powerful. They have banned the word s e x from CBS posts.
and you republicons think everything is just fine;
how can you teach kids to protect themselves from bad
S**X
when the evangelicals and the fascist republicons censore everything into their christian cesspool
The Christians are not filtering information. The humanists are doing that! If the Christians had been allowed to teach purity (a form of self respect), the STD epidemic would not be what it is. Instead, the religion of humanism has crept in by deception, loud repetitious proclamations and treachery.
It is the humanist Hersh family which owns the text book companies and removed all references to family, mother, father etc 6 years ago.
They are promoting the NWO. And you, in your own foolish way, are helping them. You are what the hippies call a "tool".
Posted by house015
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And that is NOT s e x education. It is religious indoctrination!!
Posted by exCoachKen
This couldn''t be more untrue. Bush could easily terminate the pro-homosexual *** and abstinence education by threatening to withdraw federal funding from the Department of Education and the NEA but, he doesn''t do it. Furthermore, the SEICUS *** ed manual was commissioned by the CDC that is a part of Health and Human Services that former Utah Governor Mike Leavitt presides over under Bush and Bush could easily order Leavitt to withdraw it as well. Bush could do either and doesn''t. This is one of the things I hold against Bush as well as his having openly gay people serving in his administration.
BUT PARENTS COULD CARE LESS ABOUT RAISING THEIR CHILDREN AND YOU CAN SEE THE RESULTS TODAY!
Posted by pcouch6996 at 06:45 PM : Mar 13, 2008
Well, hi, Paul *tsa*, sounds like a long time *tsa* since your couch spings played the boxed set of Culture Cub *tsa*. Ice cream truck full of Jim Dandies melting and going to waste *tsa*. You need some warm pink slithering taste buds to heat up your snow cones. *tsa* Someone to keep your sundae m&m''s from melting in you hand. *tsa* - Barney Frank lets pass some laws together.
THIS BAD DISEASE IS NOT FOUND IN INDIA. WHY DON''T YOU VISIT THE LAND OF OPPORTUBITIES AND SETTLE THERE?
THIS BAD DISEASE IS NOT FOUND IN INDIA. WHY DON''T YOU VISIT THE LAND OF OPPORTUBITIES AND SETTLE THERE?
Posted by WinnerIndia
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1. Don''t shout. Are you a toddler?
2. Write as if you''re not a toddler; including obvious spelling issues. It''s "opportunities".
Posted by standlee5
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Do you have proof of that?
Don''t get me wrong; for all their chants of wanting "equality", how many truly want to walk the talk? Even some of their own publications (used to) put out articles asking the very question. It''s okay for them to ask themselves, but anyone looking from the outside in -- well, that''s homophobia and not allowed. Odd.
And, yeah, it''s genuinely tragic some people would throw away their lives by contracting the disease; a disease of choice. Either by accident, a cheating "lover", or deliberately asking (the latter happens too...)
Posted by jerkaboner"
S3x with other HUMANS is bad for you, it also results in unwanted pregnancy. As the other story about 1 in 4 teen GIRLS having an STD tells us- people are DIRTY
Funny that zoophilia carries no such risk of HIV, AIDS, Ghonnorea, VD, chalmidia or any of the dozens of human to human STD''s. I never once caught anything from an animal, and vice-versa, I''ll stick to animals thank you, and pass on the condumbs too.
7th year of increase, up 12%, welll... the human population has ALSO increased in 7 years too, so it makes perfect sense eveything else has increased too.
julialily
You left out zoo''s!
African FEMALE HETEROSEXUALS are the fastest growing hiv positive group today, its NOT a g@y disease- its a human transmitted to human disease, and you think people like that hooker the NY Gov was paying $4300 an hour for would use protection?
Maxify55
Sorry to burst your bibull bubble but it had nothing to do with ''moral'' values and everything to do with religious conflicts & other wars eating up huge amounts of resources- young men killing each other, overuse and destruction of supplies and funds
It also had a lot to do with land squabbles, power quests to conquor and take property, and then overpopulation and crowding which always brings disease no matter whether its people or rats, and it wasnt till 100 years ago that society even really had MEDICAL science- anaesthesia, surgery to fix defects, transplants etc
In the civil war many died from loss of blood, infections that today can be cured with antibiotics and clean- most of this they didn''t understand back then- they didn''t even have XRAYS or scans to diagnose.
The people also lived in crowded cities full of highly combustible houses, depending on where you look- made of wood and straw thatch roofs, using fire for light because there was no electric back then, horses were also bedded with straw so this was all over the place.
Chicago burned down as did NYC and every other major city as recent as the mid 19th century- from kerosene lamps or other accidents igniting straw or wood, no fire department, no water mains
Every species that outstrips its range and becomes too crowded has a population crash from diseases, infections or starvation
THEN you would learn South African hetero FEMALES are the largest growth group with HIV, NOT g@y men!
HIV started in AFRICA, Africa is one of the worst crowding, poorest sanitation, poorest medical care countries around, all kinds of diseases start there.
BBC NEWS S Africa has ''fastest'' ARV growth
South Africa''s government says nearly a quarter of a million HIV positive people are now receiving anti-retroviral ... S Africa has ''fastest'' ARV growth ...
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6144540.stm
HIV prevalence rate and population density: Eastern Cape ...
The HIV prevalence in South Africa has increased considerably from below 1% in 1991 to over 22% in 1998. South Africa has one of the fastest HIV growth ...
gateway.nlm.nih.gov/MeetingAbstracts/102237973.html
Positive outcomes: the chances of acquiring HIV/AIDS during the ...
The HIV rates among the age group 15-19 in the Eastern Cape are now among the fastest HIV growth rates in the world. Interventions include single s3x ...
hivaidsclearinghouse.unesco.org/ev.php?ID=3437_201&ID2=DO_TOPIC
And newsterl, you are dead right, from my reading it was as you said, land squabbles, power quests to conquor,overpopulation and crowding.... along with greed, hate, racial problems. we continually get told that it was RELIGION which caused the collapse, but religion was not the main cause, it was of course part of their lives but not the cause of the decline.. and it appears that along with this was moral decay..
Many homosexuals who have come out of homosexuality and are now leading normal lives say that it is a choice not something that they couldnt help. and as for the gene theory it was two homosexuals who found that... and there has been no follow up on it and there was no referees...
But in having said that I have also heard that I have heard that this type of teaching does work..
"Love waits. Lust wants...... Love can''t wait to give. Lust can''t wait to take........ love mends. Lust hurts...... Love is secure. Lust is selfish......... Love is understanding, Lust doesnt care........Love brings respect, Lust brings shame.......Love lasts, Lust ends Purity.
Chlamydia Cases In U.S. On The Rise
More Than 1 Million Cases In 2006 Sets Record; Rates Of Other STDs Also Up
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(AP) More than 1 million cases of chlamydia were reported in the United States last year, the most ever reported for a sexually transmitted disease, federal health officials said Tuesday.
"A new U.S. record," said Dr. John M. Douglas Jr. of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
More bad news: Gonorrhea rates are jumping again after hitting a record low, and an increasing number of cases are caused by a "superbug" version resistant to common antibiotics, federal officials said Tuesday.
This below alone should make us think twice about how we stop this problem..
The Heritage Foundation has published a new study showing a link between sexual activity and depression among teenagers. The news isn''t good. For sexually active girls age fourteen to seventeen, the rates of depression (which the study''s authors define as "unhappiness," not clinical depression) are more than three times higher than for those who have not been sexually active. Sexually active boys "are more than twice as likely to be depressed as are those who are not sexually active." And both boys and girls who have been sexually active are more likely to commit suicide.
Sexually Active Teenagers Are More Likely to Be Depressed and to Attempt Suicide
by Robert E. Rector, Kirk A. Johnson, Ph.D., and Lauren R. Noyes
Center for Data Analysis Report #03-04
If you look back in the more recent history, to ''Typhoid Mary'' who started a huge epidemic that was traced across her trip East to West coast, she worked handling food, thats how it was spread.
Polio epidemic, Small,Pox, black plague etc epidemics killed millions, so did/does many water borne illnesses- dysentery, malaria and so on. The common FLU is also a killer;
Simonsen et al. estimated that influenza caused approximately 21,000 deaths per year in the United States for the period 1972%u20131992.
In a recent paper, Thompson et al. (11Go) introduced a new approach for estimating deaths attributable to influenza: They fit a regression model to death time series that combined a sinusoidal function with weekly virologic surveillance data from the United States. They attributed an average of 34,000 deaths per year to influenza for the period 1976%u20131999, consistent with the 37,500 deaths per year estimated by Serfling-type models for this period.
According to the Centers For Disease Control (CDC) there are just short of 40,000 new HIV cases in the US each year. (2005)
Its also not just g@y men the increase, read this and see where the problem IS, its CLEAR;
U.S. HIV Cases Soaring Among Black Women (washingtonpost.com)
Feb 7, 2005
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3318-2005Feb6.html
He was, Precious Jackson said, a very fine black man. He was 6 feet 2 inches tall with an almond-milk complexion, dreamy dark eyes and a deep voice. During their nearly two years together in Los Angeles, he was the sunshine of her life, even though he had a habit of landing in jail and refused to use a condom when they made love.
"I didnt ask him any questions," Jackson said in a recent interview. "I didn''t ask him about his sexual history. I asked him if he had been tested, and he said one test came back positive but another one came back negative. I was excited to have this man in my life, because I felt I needed this man to validate who I was.
Black neighborhoods, they say, are more likely to be plagued by joblessness, poverty, drug use and a high ratio of women to men, a significant portion of whom cycle in and out of a prison system where the rate of HIV infection is estimated to be as much as 10 times higher than in the general population.
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