STD infection [venereal disease] rates rise in U.S.

The number of newly diagnosed cases of the three most common sexually transmitted diseases rose for the second year in a row in the U.S., driven in part by an increase in risky sexual behavior, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Tuesday. *** Of particular concern is a rising number of syphilis cases among gay and bisexual men, Douglas said. A large proportion of these men were HIV positive and became more sexually active when better AIDS drugs improved their health, he said. *** Gay and bisexual men made up 64% of new cases of primary and secondary syphilis in 2006.

My math was based on the cited syphilis rate. They do not give the rates for the other diseases.

It is amazing to me that someone who has acquired HIV will get treated with expensive drugs and then go out a indulge in the same behavior that gave him HIV in the first place, thus acquiring addition illness, and thoughtlessly threatening society. And I thought smokers were addicts! These guys are like the smoker who burned himself by trying to smoke while breathing from an oxygen tank.

It is high time that we regarded homosexuality as clearly abnormal, and a health issue. Unfortunately, the CDC is under political and idealogical pressure to avoid the facts. This is part of the same government which wishes to regulate the climate for us.

It also begins to look as if Freud was right (for once), and that homosexuality is case of arrested development. “Gays” show all the signs of infantile behavior, only in grown-up bodies. I am not saying this thoughtlessly. Even gay talent reminds one of childish curiosity and inventiveness, perhaps an instance of paedomorphosis. (Look that one up.)

Hoping to call attention to the extent of HIV/AIDS among gay men, state health officials said Tuesday that an estimated 1 in 22 gay and bisexual men in Florida had the virus last year, an infection rate that dwarfs any other group.

HIV has struck some areas of the gay community even harder, with rates as high as 1 in 11 among gay white men in Broward County, 1 in 13 gay black men in Palm Beach County and 1 in 12 gay Hispanic men in Miami-Dade County, officials said. By comparison, in the least affected group, 1 in 1,625 white women had the virus.

...

But numbers aside, activists said many gay men do not practice safer sex, for many reasons: A cavalier belief that new drugs have made HIV a manageable disease instead of a killer; rebellion against safer-sex after years of sexual fear; abuse of party drugs; lack of safe-sex knowledge among younger males, and denial caused by stigma against homosexuality.

"There's no gay man who doesn't know having unprotected sex can lead to HIV. But sometimes they ignore it, and that's what we have not been able to address," said Christopher Lacharite, an HIV patient and prevention coordinator at Compass, a gay organization in Palm Beach County.

...

Few new attempts have been made to intervene with young gay men meeting others on the Internet to organize high-risk sex parties, and education materials cannot go too far in portraying men as mates, advocates said.

1 in 22 gay, bisexual men in Florida has HIV, study says -- South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com

In other public health issues:

CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- More than 90,000 Americans get potentially deadly infections each year from a drug-resistant staph "superbug," the government reported Tuesday in its first overall estimate of invasive disease caused by the germ.
Deaths tied to these infections may exceed those caused by AIDS, said one public health expert commenting on the new study. The report shows just how far one form of the staph germ has spread beyond its traditional hospital setting.
The overall incidence rate was about 32 invasive infections per 100,000 people. That's an "astounding" figure, said an editorial in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association, which published the study.
Most drug-resistant staph cases are mild skin infections. But this study focused on invasive infections -- those that enter the bloodstream or destroy flesh and can turn deadly.
Researchers found that only about one-quarter involved hospitalized patients. However, more than half were in the health care system -- people who had recently had surgery or were on kidney dialysis, for example. Open wounds and exposure to medical equipment are major ways the bug spreads.
In recent years, the resistant germ has become more common in hospitals and it has been spreading through prisons, gyms and locker rooms, and in poor urban neighborhoods.
The new study offers the broadest look yet at the pervasiveness of the most severe infections caused by the bug, called methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA. These bacteria can be carried by healthy people, living on their skin or in their noses.

Experts: Drug-resistant staph deaths may surpass AIDS toll - CNN.com

Maybe we should concentrate our resources on public health threats that aren't a result of deliberately risky behavior.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.