Free Republic

The prestigious Journal of the American Public Health Association has devoted a substantial portion of its latest edition (AJPH -- Table of Contents (June 1 2003, 93 [6]).) to the risks associated with homosexual practices. The following statement is one of several that glare at readers from the journal's cover: "I gave my lover everything including HIV. I didn't mean to. We made a mistake. Maybe deep down we felt it would be better if we both had it..."The journal contents read like a litany of bad news, one article following another. Consider the following: Mary E. Northbridge, Ph.D., MPH,...

Berlin (dpa) - Public health officials said Monday the incidence of syphilis was soaring in Germany, with homosexual men especially affected by the sexually transmitted disease, which is rampant in eastern Europe.    The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) in Berlin, the German federal agency that tracks infectious diseases, said there were 2,275 cases last year, a rise of 720 compared to 2001, with the highest rates in the two big cities of Berlin and Hamburg.    Officials said the increase was mainly because homosexual men were taking more risks. Often syphilis was showing up as an accompanying infection to human immunodeficiency...

Body Zone, the newer and more modern of Detroit’s two gay men’s bathhouses, offers the same amenities found in most gay baths around the country — a labyrinth of hallways lined with small rooms that contain beds. The rooms are available for eight-hour rental. The place also features a steam room, an open shower room, a large hot tub and lounge areas where TVs show either sitcoms or gay pornography. There is scant conversation. Men looking to hook up communicate almost exclusively through eye contact. I pass men of every shape, age and ethnicity, but no one talks. They sit...

<p>Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court reminded America that sex is private. In fact, there is very little privacy in our sexually saturated culture. From cybersex in chat rooms to discussion of sexual positions on HBO's "Sex and the City," there is little mystique left.</p>

WHY WE CHEAT By SUSAN EDELMAN -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FORBIDDEN PLEASURES: Some researchers believe changes in gender roles are prompting more married women to sleep around. July 13, 2003 -- More women are cheating on their husbands - and doing it without remorse, sex researchers say. A stunning 90 percent of adulterous wives told one Manhattan researcher they suffered "no guilt," but rather felt "entitled" to the pleasure and excitement of their secret trysts, said Susan Shapiro Barash, a gender-studies professor and author. "Women feel entitled because they're not getting what they need in the marriage. That's why women today have affairs,"...

Study shows lack of evidence for condom effectiveness in preventing STDs "You're entering a no spin zone!" So cautions Bill O’Reilly on Fox News channel's The O'Reilly Factor, a program that polls indicate is the most watched cable news program in the USA. The show’s popularity indicates that people are tired of spin; they want to hear information straight, fair, and balanced. While there may be “no spin zones” on cable television –– and some people debate that assertion –– what about spin in other arenas? What about the spin on “safe sex” and condoms? The topic of sex ignites...

<p>The National Institutes of Health continues to fund sex studies despite protests from members of Congress who say projects such as paying women to watch pornography take taxpayer dollars away from potentially lifesaving research.</p> <p>The critics' latest target of outrage: $26,000 in federal funds for a conference on sexual arousal next month at the Kinsey Institute in Bloomington, Ind.</p>

Syphilis Cases On The Rise In Bay Area Dr. Klausner: 'It's Absolutely An Epidemic' Marianne Favro POSTED: 4:35 p.m. PDT June 17, 2003 UPDATED: 5:46 p.m. PDT June 17, 2003 SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Doctors are calling it an epidemic. The number of people with syphilis in the Bay Area is skyrocketing. NBC11's Marianne Favro reported on why there has been an increase in this sexually transmitted disease. Doctors attribute the increases in syphilis patients to several factors, including more effective treatments for AIDS and the popularity of Viagra. In San Francisco, syphilis is spreading at an alarming rate....

He's celibate until marriage, and dates won't tolerate it June 15, 2003 BY MARY MITCHELL SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST Ten years ago, Darren Washington, 33, made a dramatic lifestyle change. He decided to abstain from sex until he got married. It is a choice that makes sense in a world where sex can literally kill you. But the fear of sexually transmitted diseases was not the only thing that motivated Washington to try celibacy. Given the pain sexual relationships can cause, he wanted to be part of the solution--not part of the problem. On Saturday, June 21, he will be one of...

UNSAFE SEX WIDESPREAD Many teens and adults don't think oral sex is sex. It's not intercourse, but it is not "safe sex," either. Meanwhile, millions of teen-agers who are engaging in such intimate contact are becoming infected with sexually transmitted diseases every year. According to a study in the Journal of Pediatric Psychology, adolescents were more likely to report engagement in oral sex than intercourse, report more oral sex partners than intercourse partners and were unlikely to report use of STD protection during oral sex. o Three million U.S. teens are infected with one or more sexually transmitted diseases --...

State Health Department data released last week indicate that 121 men were diagnosed with syphilis in its first or second stages in 2002. State health officials say the vast majority were among men having sex with men. Forty-eight women were diagnosed with the disease in 2002. Although the number of infected people is low - compare it with the 1,719 New Jersey cases in 1990 - public health experts say the rapid spike in infections is deeply troubling. It signals that many gay men have resumed unprotected sex with multiple partners, a trend with worrisome health implications. The uptick indicates...

<p>Saying he wanted to send a message that such activity ''will not be tolerated in this society,'' an Oakland County Circuit Court judge Monday ordered an Oak Park man to prison for performing a kitchen table castration on a volunteer patient last summer.</p>

New theory of SARS transmission is proposed by doctor 2003/4/8TAIPEI, Taiwan, The China Post staff A local medical researcher yesterday speculated that the virus causing the potentially deadly severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) can be transmitted through sexual intercourse. At the same time, Dr. Lin Jui-hsiung, the head of the National Taiwan University Institute of Epidemiology, said that SARS did not appear to be easily spread and that there was no need for people to wear surgical masks. Lin claims that his hypothesis could help explain why some people seem to have come down with SARS for no explainable reason....

New Jersey Physicians Publicize Dangers of Teen Sexual Activity “It’s a sad thing. STDs (sexually transmitted diseases) impact almost every patient I come in contact with,” notes Susan Bostock, M.D., a family practice physician who works in an inner-city hospital clinic in Newark. “In the patients I see, greater than 80 percent give a history of having an STD. It is rare when I have a patient who doesn’t have a history of STDs or is not currently infected with one.” Teen sexual activity comes with a huge price tag. When a young person becomes sexually active they have immediately...

Exclusive commentary by Beverly B. Nuckols, M.D. Most of us have read the novel, Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, and smiled or laughed when Huck Finn talked Tom Sawyer, who complained of catching warts from playing with toads, into going to the graveyard at midnight to "heave" a dead cat while repeating a ritual phrase as a charm. You and I know that Tom could throw that dead cat from midnight to sunrise without achieving his goal, because we understand that warts are a disease caused by a virus that is passed from person to person. But, I’m sure the...

Phil Brennan Monday, Feb. 3, 2003 Every day a silent epidemic strikes 8,000 American youngsters, warns Dr. Meg Meeker, and it is killing and physically and psychologically crippling hordes of America’s children. Dr. Meeker, author of the new book "Epidemic," told a rapt C-PAC audience Friday that she was speaking "on behalf of the millions of American teen-agers who cannot speak for themselves, who cannot articulate how to preserve the sanctity of their lives as they are being crushed amidst our culture which is so toxic to their sensibilities and their sensitivities to their psyches, to their bodies, to their...

"I'm sorry folks! I must confess that when I accepted this invitation, I thought that it was to a strip joint named Scandals..."

<p>Reva M. Trammell won't have to go far to see the criminals she battled in Richmond's South Side.</p> <p>The confrontational crime-fighter has landed a job at the city jail less than three months after losing her City Council seat.</p> <p>Richmond Sheriff Michelle B. Mitchell has hired Trammell as a community-relations coordinator. She starts Tuesday.</p>

Although Florida's health clinics treat thousands of patients for sexually transmitted diseases each year, state statistics show that thousands more are never even tested. A new study aims to track down the cause of this vexing trend by sending investigators into the affected communities. "[Clinics] were noticing a decrease in the number of cases being diagnosed, so they were concerned about where those people are going and if they are being seen or not being seen," said UF associate professor of nursing Sharleen Simpson, who is conducting the study for the Florida Department of Health. For the past year, Simpson...

Wednesday, November 06, 2002, 12:00 a.m. PacificWhat's 'real' sex? Kids narrow definition, put themselves at risk It's a taboo topic, but one that parents, educators and health-care providers have been discussing quietly for the past couple of years and with a greater degree of urgency. Many teenagers — and even children as young as middle school — are having oral sex. Some of them don't think of it as real sex. And many are unaware that it can be dangerous. Things every teen — and parent — should know • While the risk of contracting most sexually transmitted diseases...