By Marie Szaniszlo - TheBody.com's Bulletin Boards

The strategy that would be more effective than merely
getting tested by yourself annually...

> By Marie Szaniszlo
> http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=56646

> Mayer recommended that anyone who is sexually active be tested at
> least once a year.

Potential sex partners can get tested together
for sexually transmitted infections before having sex
http://NotB4WeKnow.EditThisPage.com

Effective safer sex practices and using condoms require a
diligence beyond actual human behavior, beyond how people
actually behave. Mere regular testing will not work for when
an infection is detected it is too late already. Testing
will work in preventing new sexually transmitted infections
when done together before exposure not after it could be too
late to do anything about the sexually transmitted
infections.

> By Marie Szaniszlo
> http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=56646
>
> Home > News & Opinion > Local / Regional News
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>
> Soaring syphilis rate ends decade of decline in Hub
>
> By Marie Szaniszlo
> Wednesday, December 1, 2004
> After a decade of decline, Boston now has one of the nation's
> highest syphilis rates, according to federal statistics.
>
> At least
> 69 cases, or
> 11.5 per 100,000 people,
> were reported last year, giving the city the
> sixth highest rate in the nation, after San Francisco, Atlanta,
> Baltimore, Detroit and Newark, respectively, according to the
> Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
>
> Last year's rate represents a 43.8 percent increase over the
> previous year, when the CDC ranked Boston 16th in the country.
>
> In 2001, the city ranked 28th.
>
>
>
> John Auerbach, executive director of the Boston Public Health
> Commission, attributed much of the steady rise to a
> 37 percent cut in state funding over the past three years in AIDS
> prevention, treatment and services, which had helped educate people
> about the dangers of risky sexual behavior.
>
>
>
> Other reasons for the increase could be advances in AIDS treatment,
> which ironically may have led some people to be generally less
> cautious, said Dr. Kenneth Mayer, medical research director at the
> Fenway Community Health Center, which treats many of the gay men who
> are believed to make up the bulk of new syphilis cases.
>
>
>
> Recent CDC research suggests that more than
> 60 percent of the 7,177 syphilis cases reported last year involved
> men having sex with men.
>
>
>
> Mayer recommended that anyone who is sexually active be tested at
> least once a year.
>
> For information about free screenings, log on to
> http://www.gettestedboston.org
> or contact the Public Health Commission at
> 617 534 5264
>
> talkBack.gif
>
> By Marie Szaniszlo
> http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=56646

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