The CDC surveillance numbers for 2011 show that gonorrhea and chlamydia are up especially among young people and that three-quarters of all syphilis cases are among men who have sex with men; an analysis of STIs in New York City finds they are inextricably linked to poverty, and research suggests dormant HPV may reactivate as women near menopause.
Across the United States and worldwide, MSM continue to be a group disproportionately affected by STDs and HIV, but we still need better data and better tools to guide prevention efforts.
On the horizon is a greater integration of services and population level outcomes with health rather than individual disease case numbers as the sole measure of success or failure. And syphilis reminds us of why this is so utterly necessary.
It’s rare that my MSM patients know which STDs they ought to be screened for, and how often. Men who have sex with men don’t get screened often enough for diseases like syphilis, gonorrhea, and HIV.
The response to the
HIV/AIDS pandemic has transformed
global health financing
and programming, demonstrating the
potential to make
substantial progress against diseases in low-
There were tantalizing hints at this week’s HIV prevention conference that CDC may be ready to seek significant changes in federal prevention policy and programs.
Recent data indicate that HIV and AIDS affect gay and bisexual men at rates grossly disproportional to other groups. Why did it take CDC so long to ask these questions and what will we do to answer them?
Live-blogging from the UN meeting on AIDS: HIV stigma fuels the invisibility of many populations afflicted by this disease – when we say we want to reach “all” groups of people, we should mean it.
Yesterday the CDC finally released data it had long held internally that demonstrates an alarming increase in the number of HIV/AIDS cases among young African-American men who have sex with men (MSM).
