Syphilis On The Rise Among Homosexuals

Greenwich Time ^ | 5/10/05 | Michael Dinan

[NRA1995]

More and more gay men in Connecticut are contracting syphilis, a life-threatening sexually transmitted disease, according to new statistics from the state Department of Public Health.

Forty-five new cases of primary and secondary syphilis in Connecticut residents were reported to the state in 2004 -- more than triple the number of cases reported just four years ago, and 50 percent more than last year. Of those 45 new cases, 34 were gay men, including 12 who live in lower Fairfield County.

The disease -- an epidemic a decade ago among poor blacks in Connecticut's larger cities -- is spreading quickly among gay suburban men because they're having unprotected sex, said Heidi Jenkins, director of the state health department's STD control program.

Health officials who interviewed most of the people who tested positive for syphilis last year found that some gay men live dangerously, Jenkins said. Despite efforts to promote the use of condoms, some gay men have unprotected sex with multiple partners they meet at Manhattan parties and bars, a popular bathhouse in Providence, R.I., and through Internet chat rooms, she said. Also, increasing numbers of gay men are smoking or injecting crystal methamphetamine, a highly addictive drug that spurs "high-risk" behavior such as unprotected sex, Jenkins said. Others say unprotected sex is increasing because some gay men no longer believe AIDS can kill them prematurely.

"It's a great concern to us," Jenkins said. "What we're seeing with these cases are men with a lot of partners."

[scripter]

This is one of the many reasons we need to:

• Help homosexuals leave the lifestyle
• Discourage homosexuality (especially in the schools)

[PROTESTBYPROXY]

Just another badge of honor.

[little jeremiah]

Homosexual Agenda Ping.

Yup, normal, natural, and healthy - just like apple pie and sunny spring days.

Anyone surprised? Homosexuality is a psychological disorder, and in many cases can be healed.

Let me know if you want on/off this pinglist.

[little jeremiah]

And when acted up, immoral, unhealthy, and unnatural.

[GipperGal]

27: and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in their own persons the due penalty for their error.

You know, every time I read that passage, I wonder whether if there was a variation of some modern STD strain that swept through the Roman world in the first century AD but eventually was wiped out with the population decline that hit them in the next two centuries.