Washington Blade - October 3, 2003

CHICAGO | Across the nation, health officials fighting sexually transmitted diseases have begun in earnest to use the Internet to reach people who have been exposed to STDs, the Chicago Tribune reported. More people than ever hook up for casual sex with others they meet on the Internet, health advocates noted, and STD rates are expected to climb in proportion. Disease-intervention specialist Andy Delicata of Chicago's Howard Brown Health Center told the Tribune that his first communications with people who test positive for syphilis may be by telephone or by mail, but he also now contacts people via the Internet. Howard Brown health educator Daniel Pohl also uses the www.howardbrown.org site or chat rooms to offer information and answer questions for the predominantly gay Howard Brown community, according to the Tribune. Although Pohl visits gay bars and other locations to talk with those at risk, he points to advantages of the Internet: "It's easier for guys to talk to me. They tell me more - and more private things - online."

San Francisco syphilis rate increases significantly

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) | The syphilis epidemic in San Francisco appears to be growing unabated, with the city on track to report 750 new cases by year's end, up 50 percent from 2002, the city's public health department announced last week. The vast majority of cases have been reported among gay and bisexual men who have had unprotected sex with multiple partners, health officials reported. About two-thirds of the new cases are in people already infected with HIV, which is particularly troubling to health officials since it suggests many people are having unprotected sex despite knowing that they carry the AIDS virus. Both diseases are transmitted sexually, but only syphilis is curable. "Many people have lost their awareness or appreciation of syphilis as a health problem," said Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, who directs the department's sexually transmitted disease unit, which recorded 494 new syphilis cases last year. In response, the department and AIDS prevention groups said they are renewing efforts to build awareness about syphilis, particularly among gays.

Man with HIV appeals denial of kidney transplant

DENVER (AP) | A national gay rights group is helping a Denver man with HIV fight Kaiser Permanente's refusal to cover his kidney transplant. John Carl, 53, has been turned down despite being accepted by the United Network for Organ Sharing's national list, according to Lambda Legal, a New York-based advocacy group that also works with people with HIV and AIDS. Hayley Gorenberg, Lambda's AIDS Project director, said this is the first time her group has represented someone denied a transplant because of having HIV. Officials for Kaiser, a giant not-for-profit health maintenance organization, said a transplant on someone with HIV or AIDS is considered too risky because drugs used to suppress rejection of a new organ can further jeopardize an already embattled immune system. Studies, however, have increasingly shown that the success rate for transplants is as good for HIV patients in relatively good health as it is for other patients, Gorenberg said.

Researchers intensify lab work to bring AIDS virus out of hiding

LOS ANGELES | Continuing efforts to bring out the AIDS virus in patients so that it can be struck down have led to a new level of success in laboratory studies involving mice. The AIDS virus sometimes hibernates, going undetected, even among patients taking their drug cocktails as directed, according to the New York Times. As AIDS specialists work to bring the virus out so that it can be killed, a laboratory at the University of California at Los Angeles recently reported 80 percent success in mice. "Eighty percent is close," said Dr. Roger J. Pomerantz, an AIDS researcher at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, told the Times. "But close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades." Even if the virus is found in just one dormant T cell in a million, repeated tests in humans have shown that it will re-emerge if the therapy stops. The most success to date is in the new UCLA study that used only mice.

World response to AIDS criticized as countries fail to meet U.N. goals

UNITED NATIONS (AP) | The world's financial and political response to curbing the AIDS epidemic has been woefully inadequate, with many countries failing to achieve goals set two years ago at a historic United Nations session on the disease, a new report said. As the U.N. General Assembly last week reviewed progress since its 2001 special session, the report outlined shortfalls on numerous fronts including expanding access to drugs, caring for AIDS orphans, preventing discrimination and transmission of the disease from mothers to their children. "We are not on track to begin reducing the scale and impact of the epidemic by 2005," Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a speech to open the U.N. session. Without more money and more political will, it is unlikely the goal of halting and reversing the epidemic by 2015 will be met, experts said.

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