Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2005. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
San Francisco Chronicle - November 9, 2005
Jason B. Johnson, jbjohnson@sfchronicle.com.
The syphilis increase was especially significant among gay men. The report also showed chlamydia on the rise, possibly from expanded and improved screening, while new gonorrhea cases reached an all-time low in 2004. There were 926,462 new cases of chlamydia nationwide, or 319.6 per 100,000 people.
Local health officials and advocates said the Bay Area had bucked the national trend in syphilis.
The number of new syphilis cases in San Francisco declined 27 percent between the first half of 2004 and the first half of 2005, according to the San Francisco Department of Public Health. There were 251 new cases in the first half of this year.
Jeff Klausner, director of sexually transmitted disease prevention and services for San Francisco, said the city was leading the nation with an aggressive campaign to combat STDs, especially among gay men.
"We're concerned because we know San Francisco is not an island," Klausner said, however. "We've seen increases in San Diego and Chicago."
The city has an e-mail program that allows people to anonymously notify sex partners that they may have an STD.
Noting that people who use crystal meth are more likely to contract and spread STDs, Jason Riggs of the Stop AIDS Project said San Francisco was the only major U.S. city to show a reduction in the use of crystal meth among gay and bisexual men.
Nationally, the syphilis rate among blacks fell by nearly half between 1999 and 2003. But it climbed in 2004 for the first time in a decade, and the rise was dramatic: almost 17 percent.
Carla Dillard-Smith, deputy director of Oakland-based Cal-Pep, an HIV counseling program, said prevention and education programs had brought down the syphilis rate among African Americans in Alameda County in the 1990s.
"Syphilis hasn't jumped out at us for some time," said Dillard-Smith.
New cases of syphilis fell to an all-time low nationally in 2000. By 2004, there were 2.7 cases per 100,000 Americans.
Mark Cloutier, executive director of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, said the rising syphilis rate could have a serious impact on the spread of HIV because the presence of a sexually transmitted disease makes it easier to contract HIV, and he questioned federal prevention programs that focus on abstinence.
"We're really making significant progress," said Cloutier. "But what we're seeing in the national figures is very troubling."
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