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San Francisco health officials reported an alarming increase in new syphilis cases last year after years of declines. New syphilis cases rose 55.8 percent in 2008 over the previous year, San Francisco public health officials reported. The increase was significantly lower than the dramatic spikes reported early in the decade, when new infections increased 167 percent from 2001 to 2002. But last year's rise would seem to indicate an increase in unsafe sexual practices, which could lead to a rise in HIV infection rates.

Faced with an “obesity epidemic“, that has dramatic consequences for medical costs, pundits have proposed different solutions, ranging from excluding obesity from health insurance, government-run prevention campaigns, higher taxes on junk food, or higher premiums for fat people. The possibility of greater government involvement in medicine with the passing of ObamaCare puts this debate in a new light. If the government decides who gets money for medical treatment, the question of whether fat people deserve medical treatment will become a political issue. The question of who "deserves" treatment is only conceivable in a welfare state. In a free, capitalist society,...

Washington, D.C., had the dubious distinction of beating all 50 states to post the highest rates in the nation for the sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) Chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis, according to a new report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta. The District of Columbia had a Chlamydia rate of 1,177 cases per 100,000 people--almost three times the rate of its neighbors, Virginia (405) and Maryland (439). Mississippi was a distant second, at 728 cases per 100,000 people. By comparison, California’s rate was 407 cases per 100,000; New York came in at 458; New Mexico...

It's natural to sympathize with the parents of Brandon Patch, the 18-year-old baseball pitcher who died after he was hit by a batted ball in 2003. Sooner or later, sympathy must yield to logic and reason, so when Brandon's parents sued the bat's manufacturer, Louisville Slugger, and a jury awarded them $850,000, they contributed to the terribly misguided notion that behind every tragedy lies a lawsuit. I haven't suffered what the Patches have suffered, and I pray that I never do. I understand that pursuing litigation gives them a sense that their son's random, pointless death was not so pointless....

American squeamishness about talking about sex has helped keep common sexually transmitted infections far too common, especially among vulnerable teens, U.S. researchers reported Monday. Latest statistics on chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis show the three highly treatable infections continue to spread in the United States. "Chlamydia and gonorrhea are stable at unacceptably high levels and syphilis is resurgent after almost being eliminated," said John Douglas, director of the division of sexually transmitted diseases at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "We have among the highest rates of STDs of any developed country in the world," Douglas added in a...

What parent hasn't used candy to pacify a cranky child or head off a brewing tantrum? When reasoning, threats and time-outs fail, a sugary treat often does the trick. But while that chocolate-covered balm may be highly effective in the short term, say British scientists, it may be setting youngsters up for problem behavior later. According to a new study, kids who eat too many treats at a young age risk becoming violent in adulthood. The research was led by Simon Moore, a senior lecturer in Violence and Society Research at Cardiff University in the U.K., who specializes in the...

A gay man who repeatedly gave blood after lying about having sex with other men is suing Canadian Blood Services, alleging the questionnaire used by the agency to screen out unsuitable donors is a violation of his charter rights. Kyle Freeman alleges the blood collection agency violates his charter rights and those of other gay men by asking male donors on the questionnaire whether they had ever had sex with a man, even once, since 1977.

After the judgement of the Delhi High Court legalising gay sex, a number of parents have approached private detective agencies to spy on the sexual preferences of their children. The trend, which was going on covertly for past many years, has seen a significant increase especially after the court verdict, detective agencies say. "We have been approached by parents to help them in finding their children's sexual orientation. Our detectives spy on them to find out whether their wards are homosexuals or lesbians," said Sanjay Singh, Chief Executive Officer of Indian Detective Agency. Parents are even taking the help of...

The dangers of homosexual behavior have been long known to anyone with eyes to see them and ears to hear them, despite the “mainstream” media’s efforts to sweep this information under the rug and pretend it doesn’t exist; they are, after all, willing and eager participants in the effort to whitewash homosexuality in the eyes of the public. Yet the information keeps popping up in places like the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the New England Journal of Medicine, the Department of Justice, the American Sociological Review, the Archives of General Psychology, the Washington Blade, the Journal of Sex Research...

Public health officials are considering promoting routine circumcision for all baby boys born in the United States to reduce the spread of H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS. The topic is a delicate one that has already generated controversy, even though a formal draft of the proposed recommendations, due out from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by the end of the year, has yet to be released. Experts are also considering whether the surgery should be offered to adult heterosexual men whose sexual practices put them at high risk of infection. But they acknowledge that a circumcision drive...

HUNTINGTON BEACH – A 17-year-old boy, who was riding atop his friend's car and thrown off onto the road, died from his injuries, authorities said today. Christopher Hernandez II, of Huntington Beach, was pronounced dead at 2:50 p.m. today at UCI Medical Center in Orange, according to the county coroner's Web site. About 9:05 p.m. Friday, police received a call to assist the fire department with a teen who had fallen off of a moving vehicle near Brannen Drive and Wildrose Lane. Hernandez was riding on the roof of 2006 Nissan Altima traveling eastbound on Brannen and was thrown from...

More Dangerous than Smoking? Men who have had sex with men since 1977 have an HIV prevalence 60 times higher than the general population and 800 times higher than first time blood donors, the FDA reports. When it comes to combating cigarettes, the government not only restricts, taxes and bans smoking, it also funds and encourages anti-smoking messages and advertisements. Given the immense health risks of male homosexual sex, shouldn’t the federal government do a comprehensive study on the matter, tax sodomitic establishments, and educate the public and especially young people about the dangers of “gay” sex? Speaking Friday at...

A rule that prevents many HIV-positive immigrants and travelers from entering the United States will likely be lifted before the year is up, after the Department of Health and Human Services earlier this month recommended changing the regulation. Immigration and HIV/AIDS advocacy groups have been working to repeal the 22-year-old rule, which they call discriminatory, dangerous, and debilitating to the strength of the U.S. scientific community. A large number of foreigners with the human immunodeficiency virus would benefit from the change, the groups say, when these individuals would finally be able to enter the country to see loved ones, attend...

Obama urges Americans get tested for HIV 33 mins ago WASHINGTON (AFP) – President Barack Obama on Saturday urged his fellow Americans to get tested for HIV in an effort to reduce transmission of the virus that causes AIDS. "On this 14th commemoration of National HIV Testing Day, I urge Americans to take control of their own health -- and protect those they love -- by getting tested for HIV and working to reduce HIV transmission," Obama said in a statement. "While its impacts are not evenly spread -- infection rates are particularly high among gay and bisexual men, African...

Health officials in Los Angeles said Friday that 22 actors in adult sex movies had contracted H.I.V. since 2004, when a previous outbreak led to efforts to protect pornography industry employees. The officials accused an industry-supported health clinic of failing to cooperate with state investigations and of failing to protect not only industry workers but their sexual partners as well. “We have an industry that is exposing workers to life-threatening diseases as part of their employment,” said Dr. Jonathan Fielding, director of public health for Los Angeles County. “That is outrageous and anachronistic. These infections are virtually entirely preventable.” The...

D.C. HIV/AIDS Rate Higher Than West Africa March 18, 2009 · According to a new report issued by Washington, D.C., officials, the HIV rate in the nation's capital is the highest in the country. Nearly 3 percent of the city's residents are living with HIV/AIDS, a rate higher than in West Africa. Cornelius Baker, formerly of Washington's renowned Whitman-Walker clinic, and Patricia Nalls, of The Women's Collective, discuss the epidemic.

<p>Men having sex with men has remained the disease's leading mode of transmission.</p> <p>Heterosexual sex was the principal mode of transmission for blacks with the disease, 33 percent. Men having sex with men was the chief mode of transmission for white residents, 78 percent; and Latinos, 49 percent. Black women represent more than a quarter of HIV cases in the District, and most, about 58 percent, were infected through heterosexual sex. About a quarter of black women were infected through drug use.</p>

HIV prevalence is higher among non-religious Kenyans compared to faith practitioners, the first ever large study to interrogate the relationship between religion and the disease in the country has found out. The government-sponsored Kenya AIDS Indicator Survey (KAIS) whose final findings will be released in a couple of weeks, indicates that prevalence levels among non-believers stands at 7.7 per cent against the national average of 7.1 per cent. When preliminary findings of the survey were released in 2008, they did not include the new findings. The prevalence levels are even different among various faiths, with the highest being among Protestants...

In the United States, African American men and women continue to be disproportionately affected by HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases noted in a statement issued to coincide with the 9th annual National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day on February 7. According to Dr. Anthony Fauci, African Americans make up 12 percent of the U.S. population but account for nearly half of all new HIV infections and almost half of all Americans living with HIV. According to federal health officials from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),...

Anthony De La Rosa's public MySpace profile might cause employers or college admissions officers to flinch: The 18-year-old listed "weed" among his interests and posted a photo of himself labeled "joint," in which he looks almost ready to smoke one. Still, the Milwaukee resident doesn't regret broadcasting his behavior online. De La Rosa said, "I do not care what anybody thinks about me." Or who sees his page. But a new study co-led by a University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher suggests not all MySpace users realize how public their so-called private lives are - and many made changes when warned about...

An unusually detailed study of people newly infected with H.I.V. in the United States has confirmed that the majority of new cases occur among gay and bisexual men and that blacks are most at risk. But the data show that whites and blacks tend to be infected at different times in their lives with the virus that causes AIDS. Most new infections of white gay and bisexual men occur when the men are in their 30s and 40s, the study found, while black gay and bisexual men are more likely to be infected in their teens and 20s. The results...

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Young black gay men, black women and white gay men in their 30s and 40s are much more likely to be newly infected with HIV than other groups in the United States, according to a new analysis from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The analysis -- based on figures showing that the HIV infection rate for 2006 is much worse than previously thought -- looks at the number of new HIV infections and who gets them. The study appears in this week's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. It shows 53 percent of the estimated...

Bill Clinton made a plea yesterday for a new emphasis on monogamy as a key element in the battle against Aids. The former US president, not noted for his ability to keep his own marriage vows, said it was very important to change people's attitudes to sex. In an interview with the BBC recorded in Africa, Mr Clinton said that increasing support for monogamy was not just a problem for the continent worst hit by Aids but for the world. "To pretend we can ever get hold of this without dealing with that – the idea of unprotected sexual relations...

Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality is calling on church and political leaders to confront the unhealthy lifestyle choices contributing to the majority of the country's HIV infections. The 17th International AIDS Conference will wrap up in Mexico City on Friday (August 8). In attendance is California mega-church pastor Rick Warren who says HIV-AIDS is a "global pandemic" that the church can help solve by "show[ing] compassion, kindness and the love of Christ." However, Peter LaBarbera says while he commends the idea of a church-based effort to fight AIDS in Africa, he is troubled that many church and...

War on AIDS will be long, more funds needed: UN 14 hours ago MEXICO CITY (AFP) — A global conference on AIDS was to get down to business on Monday after hearing that victory against the disease lay beyond the farthest horizon and endangered lives could only be saved with inflows of money...

Updated federal estimates of the annual number of new HIV infections in the United States, released today, reveal that while the AIDS epidemic here is worse than previously thought, prevention efforts appear to be having some effect. Even though the number of Americans living with HIV has risen by more than a quarter million people since 1998 -- largely the result of life-extending antiretroviral drugs -- the number of new cases each year has declined slightly over that period. That suggests that a person's likelihood of transmitting the virus to someone else is substantially lower now than it was a...

CNN reported July 11 that according to the National Institutes of Health, U.S. teen pregnancies in 2006 rose for the first time since 1991. Translation: "One-third of girls in the U.S. got pregnant before age 20." In the same article, CNN reported a "striking decrease" in the percentage of eighth graders smoking, down from 10 percent in 1996 to 3 percent in 2007. While federal health experts were at a loss to explain the spike in teen pregnancies, a Centers for Disease Control official said smoking abated due to "efforts convincing kids and adults not to smoke," according to CNN....

Diagnoses of H.I.V. and AIDS in men who have sex with men rose significantly between 2001 and 2006 while declining in other demographic groups, the federal Centers for Disease Control reported Thursday. The increase in diagnoses was especially high among males between the ages of 13 and 24, with an annual increase of 12.4 percent, compared to 1.5 percent for men overall. The annual increase was still higher among young African-American men who have sex with men, nearly 15 percent. Among African-American men of all ages who have sex with men, the annual increase in diagnoses was 1.9 percent. Experts...

The number of young homosexual men being newly diagnosed with HIV infection is rising by 12 percent a year, with the steepest upward trend in young black men, according to a new report. The double-digit increase in young gay men is about 10 times higher than in the homosexual community overall, where the number of new infections is going up about 1.5 percent a year. The report, released yesterday by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, appears to confirm impressions that a "second-wave" AIDS epidemic is underway in gay America.

How should society deal with a behavior -– a lifestyle choice -- that places those who engage in the behavior at a high risk for poor health and grave disease? If the behavior in question is smoking, American society does everything in its power to discourage the behavior to the point of passing laws that make it illegal to puff in public places, even if the public venue is privately owned. However, if the behavior that results in probable poor health and potentially fatal disease is promiscuous sex, particularly homosexual sex, society only encourages those who engage in the behavior...

The Aids scare was one of the most distorted, duplicitous and cynical public health panics of the last 30 yearsFinally we have a high-level admission that there is no threat of a global Aids pandemic among heterosexuals. After 25 years of official scaremongering about western societies being ravaged by the disease – with salacious, tombstone-illustrated government propaganda warning people to wear a condom or "die of ignorance" – the head of the World Health Organisation's HIV/Aids department says there is no need for heterosexuals to fret. Kevin de Cock, who has headed the global battle against Aids, said at the...

WASHINGTON, — Sexual activity is on the rise among U.S. teens while their use of contraceptives is sliding in the other direction, according to a study released on Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Click here to view the study.Approximately 48 percent of 14,041 high school students said they have had sex, representing a 2 percent hike since 2005; however, teens still are having less sex today than their counterparts did in the 1990s. The 2007 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System study showed a 2 percent drop-off in the percentage of teens who said they used condoms...

Can you imagine officials at a middle school, junior high or high school setting aside a day to promote "tolerance" for heavy smoking and drinking among children? How about a day where teachers encourage kids to "embrace who they are," pick up that crack pipe and give it a stiff toke? Neither can I. The public would go ballistic, and for good reason. But that hasn't stopped officials in thousands of schools across the country from promoting other politically correct and socially "in-vogue" behaviors that – both statistically and manifestly – are every bit as dangerous as the aforementioned frowned-upon...

INDIANAPOLIS – How can researchers track where teens go when not in or near home or school to see if this movement has an impact on health-related behavior such as smoking or sexual activity" The answer is through that ubiquitous teen accessory – the cell phone. In a paper published in the April issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health researchers from Indiana University School of Medicine report on a pilot study which evaluated the feasibility of using global position system -enabled cell phones to track where 14- to 16-year-old girls spent their time. “We didn’t know if the technology...

p>WASHINGTON, February 14, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In a public statement last Friday, Matt Foreman, outgoing Executive Director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, rattled the homosexual activist community by joining the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), pro-family organizations and a growing number of homosexual activists willing to admit that homosexual behavior is both extremely high-risk and primarily responsible for the spread of HIV/AIDS in the U.S. Addressing the topic of AIDS, Foreman drastically deviated from the "gay" lobby's party line by admitting, "Internally, when these numbers come out, the 'established' gay community seems to have a...

A new, highly drug-resistant strain of the “flesh-eating” MRSA bacteria is being spread among gay men in San Francisco and Boston, researchers reported on Monday. In a study published online by the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, the bacteria seemed to be spread most easily through anal intercourse but also through casual skin-to-skin contact and touching contaminated surfaces. The authors warned that unless microbiology laboratories were able to identify the strain and doctors prescribed the proper antibiotic therapy, the infection could soon spread among other groups and become a wider threat. The new strain seems to have “spread rapidly” in...

... The number of new H.I.V. infections in men under 30 who have sex with men has increased sharply in New York City in the last five years, particularly among blacks and Hispanics, even as AIDS deaths and overall H.I.V. infection rates in the city have steadily declined. New figures from the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene show that the annual number of new infections among black and Hispanic men who have sex with men rose 34 percent between 2001 and 2006, and rose for all men under 30 who have sex with men by 32 percent. At...

LONDON (AP) - Syphilis is back: The sexually transmitted disease long associated with 19th Century bohemian life is making an alarming resurgence in Europe. "Syphilis used to be a very rare disease," said Dr. Marita van de Laar, an expert in sexually transmitted diseases at the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. "I'm not sure we can say that anymore." Most cases of syphilis are in men, and experts point to more risky sex among gay men as the chief cause for the resurgence. But more cases are being seen among heterosexuals, both men and women, too. Syphilis was...

Estimate of AIDS cases in U.S. rises New test places the rate of infection 50 percent higher The Washington Post Estimate of AIDS Cases In U.S. Rises By David Brown updated 4:00 a.m. ET, Sat., Dec. 1, 2007 New government estimates of the number of Americans who become infected with the AIDS virus each year are 50 percent higher than previous calculations suggested, sources said yesterday. For more than a decade, epidemiologists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have pegged the number of new HIV infections each year at 40,000. They now believe it is between 55,000 and...

Ugandans Respond to Homosexual Lobby's Attack Against Anti-Sodomy Laws International organization, Human Rights Watch, has history of opposing human life and family legislation By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman UGANDA, September 24, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Dr. Martin Ssempa, spokesman for Uganda's Interfaith Rainbow Coalition Against Homosexuality (INFAH), recently blasted the pro-gay organization "Human Rights Watch" for "numerous errors and misrepresentations" in their recent letter accusing the Uganda government of human rights abuses for enforcing the country's anti-sodomy laws. "What you characterize as 'harassment' of homosexuals or 'threatening statements' by high government officials is in reality nothing more than the enforcement of the...

300 cases are estimated to be in Victoria area Twenty-five years after AIDS was formally given a name, Texas and the rest of the country still fail to designate the money needed to prevent it and HIV, a Dallas representative said on Wednesday. It's one reason why infection rates are on the rise, especially among women, Rep. Rafael Anchia, a Democrat, told the Dallas Urban League on Wednesday. Anchia's remarks reverberated to Victoria, and to an area that's estimated to have more than 300 patients with HIV/AIDS. "Despite the fact we've had 25 years of experience with this disease, something...

Patients who refuse to change their unhealthy lifestyles should not be treated by the NHS, the Conservatives said today. In a bid to ease spiralling levels of obesity and other health concerns, a Tory panel said certain treatments should be denied to patients who refuse to co-operate with health professionals and live healthier lifestyles. And those who do manage to improve their general health by losing weight and quitting smoking, for example, would receive "Health Miles" cards. Points earned could then be used to pay for health-related products such as gym membership and fresh vegetables. The aim is a shift...

FORT LAUDERDALE, August 23, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - At a news conference at City Hall this week, Jim Naugle, the mayor of Fort Lauderdale, Florida has called on homosexual men to end their public sexual encounters in order to curb the local HIV/AIDS rate. "We want to put a stop to that activity," he said. Since his first public comments in July, Naugle has been attacked on all sides for being nearly the only US public figure to oppose on moral grounds the encroachment of homosexual activity in his town. Now Naugle is in the news again for his determination to...

FORT LAUDERDALE - Mayor Jim Naugle and religious leaders held a news conference Tuesday to draw attention to what they described as the moral and health risks of gay sex. Naugle is in a political war with gays that started this summer when he said public bathrooms in Fort Lauderdale are plagued by gay men cruising for sex and added he uses the term "homosexual" because "most of them aren't gay. They're unhappy." At a news conference Tuesday in front of City Hall, Naugle and other conservative speakers called on gays to stop having promiscuous sex, in order to stem...

Controversy continues to plague efforts to protect young women against cervical cancer by vaccinating them against HPV, the human papillomavirus, but one leading scientist's discovery could throw a monkey wrench into the debate. "We found HPV under the fingernails of young men," said Dr. Laura Koutsky, a University of Washington epidemiologist. Koutsky led some of the pioneering research and clinical trials that resulted in an HPV vaccine, Merck's Gardasil, recently approved for use in girls and young women. The reason her fingernail finding is a potential bombshell has to do with why the vaccine is controversial. HPV, which is the...

 Remember how cool smoking was? If you're 45 or older, you do. Whatever happened to that politically correct, cool, suave, debonair habit that was all the rage among college students, profs, teachers, Hollywood actors, big business and just about everyone purporting to have "intellect"? In a nutshell, some scientists at the National Institutes of Health got together in the '60s, '70s and later and did some pioneering studies that proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that this cool habit could kill you. Today, they're at it again. Only it isn't smoking. That's a dead issue, thanks to science and...

The gay community in the western world, mauled by the first wave of the AIDS pandemic, now faces a second storm, according to a forecast released at the International AIDS conference. Since 2001, new cases of HIV in the homosexual population in the United States, Europe, Canada and Australasia have been rising by about 1.9 percent per year, the research by the University of Pittsburgh said. Without action to correct this trend -- a return to safe sex or an unexpected medical breakthrough -- the infection rate is set to soar as the population ages. In 2001, HIV affected on...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Clasping purple irises, calling out names and clapping to a gospel beat, San Francisco paid tribute Thursday to the thousands of residents who died from AIDS in the last 25 years and honored the thousands more still living with the HIV virus. About 200 people gathered in a performing arts center to hear elected officials, AIDS activists and long-term survivors of the disease reflect on the epidemic that was formally identified on June 5, 1981. That was the date the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a paper about a mysterious illness that had been...

Ladies, beware of dashing men. They could be dangerous. Young men who are good-looking and know it are more likely to engage in risky sex than guys who have a less positive body image, according to a new study from researchers at Pennsylvania State University. However, sexually active young women who are happy with their looks are less likely to undertake those same risks, which include having sex without condoms and sex with multiple partners. The study: Led by Dr. Eva S. Lefkowitz, associate professor of human development and family studies, and graduate student Meghan M. Gillen, the Penn State...

PAISLEY, Scotland - Research has long confirmed the health-promoting benefits of sexual intercourse. By strengthening the emotional bond between spouses, regular sexual intercourse has been shown to reduce the risk for heart attack by up to 50% in some studies. A new UK study adds to those findings revealing that only heterosexual intercourse - not homosexual sex or self abuse - has significant stress-reducing effects, as measured by blood pressure responses to stressful situations. The research conducted by Dr. Stuart Brody from Paisley University is summed up by its title: "Blood pressure reactivity to stress is better for people who...