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STD Prevention Efforts Turn to Web Hook-Ups
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Southern Voice (Atlanta)
Dec 26, 2003
Ryan Lee
On Dec. 19, CDC highlighted the Web-based approaches the San
Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH) uses to deliver
safe-sex messages in response to a four-year syphilis outbreak
among gay men. "Because a majority of new syphilis cases are from
men who have met online, we had to bring our staff up to speed on
how to use the Internet to reach people," said Jeffrey Klausner,
director of the STD Prevention & Control division of the health
department.
In 2002 in San Francisco, men who have sex with men (MSM)
accounted for 88 percent of the 495 reported cases of early
syphilis; MSM accounted for 22 percent of the 41 cases reported
in 1998. Researchers collected information from 415 MSM with the
disease. The men reported a combined total of 6,482 sex partners
during the time period in which they might have contracted
syphilis. The Internet was the most common way to meet sex
partners: almost 33 percent of hook-ups occurred online, followed
by bars, bathhouses and sex clubs.
Among syphilis-infected MSM in San Francisco, 37 percent met
partners online in the last half of 2002, compared with 12
percent in the first six months of 2000. From January through
April 2003, 44 percent met sex partners online.
The SFDPH created guidelines to help health agencies use the
Internet to contact potential sex partners. The guidelines ensure
that prevention messages protect confidentiality and are not
discarded as spam.
Also on Dec. 19, the National Coalition of STD Directors
(NCSD) called on Internet service providers to help curb the
spread of STDs through online hook-ups. "The Internet has the
potential to increase the spread of HIV and STDs, but also has
unique characteristics which, if we take advantage of them, can
reduce transmission," Theresa Raphael, executive director of
NCSD, said in a statement.
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