Syphilis and Craigslist

[westcoast555]

The risk is there for everyone...

Well, I'm sure that the women who recently won court cases re: being exposed to AIDs by some very hetero HIV positive guys can rest easy, huh? But I guess them famous athletes with HIV got it from some other dude in the locker room. I guess as long as you're not a professional athlete, the sps should probably be offering bbfs along with their bbbjs. After all, they certainly won't get (or give) anything from a low risk guy like you.


This is Post#4 of THIS thread, from the Health Nurse. You might want to read it before you give out more of your expert opinions:

...but what he says is basically true.

I went to the clinic to get tested and was lucky to get a clean bill of health.

The doctor there told me that syphilis is particularly prevalent in the 'men who have sex with men' category.

Yes it's possible to contract it from a sex worker who gives bbbjs... but the highest number of cases are in the MWHSWM category.

Don't be afraid of facts.

 

[Jack Meof]

...but what he says is basically true.

I went to the clinic to get tested and was lucky to get a clean bill of health.

The doctor there told me that syphilis is particularly prevalent in the 'men who have sex with men' category.

Yes it's possible to contract it from a sex worker who gives bbbjs... but the highest number of cases are in the MWHSWM category.

Don't be afraid of facts.

Thank you for confirming. My comments are never "opinions" only fact based on published statistics and documented research from respected Epidemiologists and other published experts in the field of HIV and STD's. All of which are freely available on the net. Learn the real risks and then decide for yourself how much risk you are willing to take rather than simply following fear based agendas. I am right but nobody will say much due to the CYA mentality.

The problem with health clinics, while they have excellent professional people working in them, are that they rely on the word of the patient and that is all they can rely on and the bottom line is that people lie for a multiple of reasons. I have yet to meet a health clinic Nurse or Dr. that will not tell me behind closed doors who is truly at risk and they are all of the groups I mentioned. People on this board may not come out and say it here but they know it is true.

It just bothers me that people's entire sex lives are wasted on unwarranted fears. Unless people fall in to certain lifestyle risks then the chances of getting an extremely hard to transmit disease like HIV for example is remote at best. You have better odds of winning the lottery. Honestly. Syph, well, it is much more prevalent among certain groups of people with a high risk lifestyle as I mentioned.

Out of many hours of reading and research, I have found the following are excellent sites for "REAL" information:

http://www.medhelp.org/forums/show/117

http://www.medhelp.org/forums/std/wwwboard.html

and the real Dr's active in the field of HIV and STD's for multiple decades that moderate and answer questions there are:

http://www.medhelp.org/doctor_profiles/show/239123

http://www.medhelp.org/doctor_profiles/show/300980

Then there is Aidsmeds, which while run with people who are HIV positive is provides good information even though one should always avoid sites run by people affected by a disease as they tend to have hyper inflated views and opinions that scare people.

http://www.aidsmeds.com/articles/Transmission_9960.shtml

There is also pubmed but it is very technical and probably not a good read for most here but here it is:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/

you can search the above Dr's names here for their numerous published research papers on HIV and STD's. Yes, actual published research vs. peer related 'comments'. (i.e. he said she said).


Regardless, I stick by my comments. Research and science trumps all. I suggest if this site is truly interested in providing health services to board members, then add these links as a sticky to compliment Health Nurse efforts here to alleviate peoples mostly unwarranted fears.

 

[Jack Meof]

Well, I'm sure that the women who recently won court cases re: being exposed to AIDs by some very hetero HIV positive guys can rest easy, huh? But I guess them famous athletes with HIV got it from some other dude in the locker room.

Well, I suppose it could have been in the locker room, bedroom, backseat of a car, or via injection drugs, I don't know and neither do you. You simply don't know and are only going on media reports. And just who are these people you refer to? Please post links to these cases you refer to.

No pro athlete will ever admit to having sex with men for obvious reasons....they would say they were injection drug users long before they would ever admit to receptive anal sex with another man.

rumors existed for years prior to Magic Johnson becoming positive that he liked men as well (remember the Isaiah Thomson kisses?) and so does Isaiah. he was the poster child for the impending "hetero" epidemic in the 80's that never happened and absolutely never will. He was the saviour to the aids community that they desparately needed to scare people into believing that everyone is at risk when it is simply not true. Anyway, I could go on and prove you wrong on your assumtions but my typing will obviously be wasted time.

Good luck to you.

 

[westcoast555]

My opinion of risk....

Thank you for confirming. My comments are never "opinions" only fact based on published statistics and documented research from respected Epidemiologists and other published experts in the field of HIV and STD's. All of which are freely available on the net. Learn the real risks and then decide for yourself how much risk you are willing to take rather than simply following fear based agendas. I am right but nobody will say much due to the CYA mentality.

The problem with health clinics, while they have excellent professional people working in them, are that they rely on the word of the patient and that is all they can rely on and the bottom line is that people lie for a multiple of reasons. I have yet to meet a health clinic Nurse or Dr. that will not tell me behind closed doors who is truly at risk and they are all of the groups I mentioned. People on this board may not come out and say it here but they know it is true.

It just bothers me that people's entire sex lives are wasted on unwarranted fears. Unless people fall in to certain lifestyle risks then the chances of getting an extremely hard to transmit disease like HIV for example is remote at best. You have better odds of winning the lottery. Honestly. Syph, well, it is much more prevalent among certain groups of people with a high risk lifestyle as I mentioned.

Out of many hours of reading and research, I have found the following are excellent sites for "REAL" information:

http://www.medhelp.org/forums/show/117

http://www.medhelp.org/forums/std/wwwboard.html

and the real Dr's active in the field of HIV and STD's for multiple decades that moderate and answer questions there are:

http://www.medhelp.org/doctor_profiles/show/239123

http://www.medhelp.org/doctor_profiles/show/300980

Then there is Aidsmeds, which while run with people who are HIV positive is provides good information even though one should always avoid sites run by people affected by a disease as they tend to have hyper inflated views and opinions that scare people.

http://www.aidsmeds.com/articles/Transmission_9960.shtml

There is also pubmed but it is very technical and probably not a good read for most here but here it is:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/

you can search the above Dr's names here for their numerous published research papers on HIV and STD's. Yes, actual published research vs. peer related 'comments'. (i.e. he said she said).


Regardless, I stick by my comments. Research and science trumps all. I suggest if this site is truly interested in providing health services to board members, then add these links as a sticky to compliment Health Nurse efforts here to alleviate peoples mostly unwarranted fears.

Good to see that you're informed and rational. I understand that some people have concerns about certain groups being 'stigmatized' or that idiots will think that NO risk at all applies to them but I'm glad to see that you're not in either of those groups.

Personally, I worry about herpes, HPV and maybe Hep C or Chlamydia.

I know that gonorrhea and syphilis are out there but I calibrate my risks according to probablilties and likewise prefer that information be accurate.

Besides, when I'm in a doctor's office it's good for him to be as accurate as possible because people do lie. When he tells me it's more prevalent in the gay community he's basically saying, 'buddy I don't know what your scene is, I don't know if you're into doing sluts in bars, banging hookers or maybe you like blowing guys... here's the risks'.

It's not like he's saying 'hey if you're straight don't worry about it'... he knows full well that I could be gay and won't admit it.

Thanks for the links... honesty and straight information are always the best policy. I've never had anything but good straight advice from the health professionals I've talked to and they're not into moralizing, equivocating or bullshitting. And I never come away with a false sense of security.

I try to minmize risk and appreciate getting access to the facts.

 

[Health Nurse]

Hi Jack Meof



One rule that the PERB people have set down is that they just want the Health Nurse to answer the questions on the health information forum. They are concerned about the effects of conflicting information provided by multiple people, especially when you are unsure of the qualifications of the people providing that information. I believe this is a good idea.



At the same time I think it is a good idea to have an open discussion about sexual health that everyone can participate in and we certainly want to foster this. I agree there can be a large degree of fear mongering about sex in general and we are hoping to reduce this.



The other thing we are trying to provide on this board is factual and specific local information. There seems to be a rise in syphilis cases (since 1996) in many places around the globe. The situation in the lower mainland is very unique in that we have had an outbreak of infectious syphilis in two different groups. We have had one in men who have sex with men (MSM) as well as one linked to street based sex work.



Just some quick numbers we have seen are:



Year:2004, 2005, 2006, 2007,

Total numbers of infectious syphilis: 305, 291, 333, 301,

NON-MSM 166, 169, 176, 128,

MSM 139, 120, 157, 173,



As you can see we get a number of cases in non-MSM groups. I agree that many people do not tell you what they are up to, but with every syphilis case we do a confidential interview.



The other thing we have seen in sexual health clinical practice is that people do not fit into nice little boxes. I see men that have sex with men at the bathhouse and then also see female sex workers. I see men who would prefer seeing indoor sex workers but if they are low on cash will see street based sex workers etc...



I completely agree that many people can fear monger about sex and we certainly do not want to do this. If we went to a year 10 class in Abbotsford and said you are going to all die from syphilis, this is fear mongering. I have always tried to be completely honest on the board and will do so now. In regard to high risk lifestyles in terms of risk to STI, sex worker and their patrons would be classified as being higher risk. Before people get all mad at me I just want to point out that this is as a large collective. Each individual person can be quite different, e.g. someone who has access to medical services, a place to live, always uses condoms, could be at a much lower level risk than someone homeless, using needle drugs etc...



Again syphilis is a treatable infection and we are looking at very low numbers moving indoors. There is no reason to panic at all just a reminder that it is a good idea for people to get a syphilis test. The other thing is that people are not completely helpless here as individual action will make a big difference. The two big things would be how often you get tested and what type of sex you have.



Just let me know if you have any other questions.



HN

 

[Health Nurse]

Sorry about the syphilis numbers above. I can not get it to recognize the space’s between the numbers. An example of how you would read it is that for 2004 there where 305 syphilis cases, 166 of these where non-MSM and 139 were MSM.

Just PM me if this does not make sense.

HN