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By: RYAN LEE COMMENTS
 
ATLANTA — Patricia Hawkins remembers attending
the funeral of 10 friends who died from complications related to AIDS in the span
of 14 days during the early years of the epidemic.
She remembers the disbelief and horror she and many other lesbians and gay
men experienced as they witnessed seemingly healthy young gay men waste away
before their eyes within a matter of weeks, and then die.
But today, Hawkins, associate executive director of the Whitman-Walker Clinic
in Washington, D.C., fears too many young gay men do not remember the days when
HIV was an automatic death sentence, and have reverted to having unsafe sex
that leaves them susceptible to contracting a host of sexually transmitted diseases.
More fuel was added to Hawkins’ burning concern on Monday when the Centers
for Disease Control & Prevention released its 2003 STD Surveillance Data
showing that gay and bisexual men continue to be responsible for rising syphilis
rates in the U.S.
The national syphilis rate was at an all-time low in 2000, but increased for
the third straight year in 2003 to 2.5 cases of primary and secondary syphilis
per 100,000 people, a 4.2 percent increase from the 2002 rate, according to
the CDC.
The CDC estimates that more than 60 percent of the primary and secondary syphilis
cases reported in 2003 were found in men who have sex with men, and syphilis
cases among all men have skyrocketed 68 percent in the last three years.
“When you have syphilis rates go up 68 percent among [men] across the
country, that is an indicator people are not practicing safer sex as they were
years ago,” Hawkins said. “I think we have to acknowledge that we’ve
had a significant increase in [high-risk sexual behavior] in our community and
that’s what is being born out in this data.”
San Francisco topped the list of cities with the highest rate of reported syphilis
cases per 100,000 people in 2003, with 43.5. Some 332 cases were reported last
year. Atlanta saw a 16.1 percent increase from its 2002 syphilis rate, ranking
No. 2 on the 2003 list, with 298 cases reported and a rate of 36.1 per 100,000
people.
Baltimore’s syphilis rate grew by 27 percent in 2003, when the city reported
153 cases, which ranked it third on the CDC list. Its rate per 100,000 people
is 24.
“The gay and bisexual men’s community has been dealing with HIV
and AIDS for decades now, and there is some complacency in the community around
that,” said Jason Riggs, communications director for the Stop AIDS Project
in San Francisco.
“People need to make informed decisions, be honest about their behavior
with themselves and what is needed now more than ever is a community engagement
that goes beyond the public health organizations,” he added.
Safe-sex messages must again be sounded from places outside of community-based
clinics, including in gay bars and other social venues for gay men, Riggs said.
The uptick in reported syphilis infections in San Francisco have mainly been
among HIV-positive men, which causes health experts to worry that a similar
HIV outbreak would soon follow, Riggs said. But evidence suggests that some
HIV-positive men are “sero-sorting,” or only having sex with other
HIV-positive men, which may explain why a dramatic HIV outbreak hasn’t
recently occurred in San Francisco, Riggs said.
Syphilis, which can easily be cured by penicillin in its early stages, is transmitted
through often unnoticeable sores during oral, anal and vaginal sex. If untreated,
the infection could damage internal organs including the brain, nerves, eyes,
heart, blood vessels, liver, bones and joints, according to the CDC.
In 1999, the CDC launched its National Plan to Eliminate Syphilis from the
United States, but its efforts focused mainly on preventing the spread of the
disease among African-American females, who at the time accounted for most syphilis
cases, said Ron Valdiserri, deputy director of the CDC’s National Center
for HIV, STD & TB Prevention.
After experiencing success with reducing syphilis among black females, whose
rate decreased 33.3 percent from 2002 to 2003, Valdiserri said the CDC is now
working with local health agencies to target gay and bisexual men.
Plans include using the Internet to deliver safe-sex messages, and addressing
the “very dangerous synergy between crystal meth use ...
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