H.I.V. Diagnosis Rates Continue to Rise Among Young Men, African-Americans

By NY Times / David Tuller
Diagnoses of H.I.V. and AIDS in men who have sex with men rose significantly between 2001 and 2006 while declining in other demographic groups, the federal Centers for Disease Control reported Thursday.

The increase in diagnoses was especially high among males between the ages of 13 and 24, with an annual increase of 12.4 percent, compared to 1.5 percent for men overall. The annual increase was still higher among young African-American men who have sex with men, nearly 15 percent. Among African-American men of all ages who have sex with men, the annual increase in diagnoses was 1.9 percent.

Experts said yesterday that the new statistics were an ominous -- but not necessarily surprising -- indicator that the epidemic continues to flourish among gay men more than 25 years after it began. “It’s a grim report,” said Dr. Ronald Stall, an epidemiologist and professor of public health at the University of Pittsburgh. “It means roughly speaking that about half of the American AIDS epidemic is occurring among a few percent of the adult population. And the terrible trends we’re seeing among white gay men are even amplified further among minority men.” Sex between men accounted for more than 97,000 new diagnoses over the six years, almost half of the total number, according to the CDC. report. In contrast, diagnoses attributed to high-risk heterosexual contact and injection-drug use declined annually by, respectively, 4.4 percent and 9.5 percent.

The findings were published in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the C.D.C.’s widely read public health journal. The data were based on reporting from 33 states and did not include statistics from some with large gay and minority populations, including California, Illinois and Georgia. The agency noted, however, that the racial disparities presented in the report generally reflected national trends in the epidemiology of AIDS. The agency reported that some of the rise could stem from higher rates of H.I.V. testing among men who have sex with men but added that “available data suggest that these increases cannot be explained by increases in testing alone.”

The C.D.C. recently launched a new H.I.V. reporting system designed to differentiate between recent and older infections. Data from the new effort should become available later this year, according to the agency, and will help experts more accurately track the impact of H.I.V. prevention programs. Jennifer Hecht, education director at the Stop AIDS Project in San Francisco, said that lack of access to information was a key factor in the increase in infection rates. “In a lot of ways this is connected to the administration’s policy of emphasizing abstinence-only education,” she said. “And the high rates we see among black men and other minorities indicate that it’s very much connected to larger issues like poverty and racism.” [Um, that's just plain bullshit logic, all the way around. Hecht's comments could be considered racist and stereotypical. FWIW, abstinence education works -- proven record. Teaching sexual promiscuity is one problem. Teaching that homosexuality is natural and normal and acceptable is the largest problem.
The rates of infection per state are also indicative of this fact. In states where traditional values are more prevalent, infections are lower. In states, like California, where anything goes is the mentality, infections rates are rampant.]

Dr. Richard Wolitski, acting director of the C.D.C.’s Division of H.I.V./AIDS Prevention, said that several factors could be fueling the increase in diagnoses, particularly among younger men. “Because of the new treatments, some men perceive it to be a less severe disease than it once was,” he said. “And this is a new generation that hasn’t been personally affected in the same way that older men have been.”

STDs Run Rampant at PA School District, CDC Steps In

A Pennsylvania school district has such a high number of students with sexually transmitted diseases that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has stepped in to track down students at risk for HIV. It’s estimated that 10 percent of the 3,000 middle and high school students in the Delaware Valley School District in Milford, P.A., are infected with an STD — including one confirmed case of HIV, Times Herald Record reported Friday.

On top of those figures, about two dozen teenage girls in the school system have tested positive for pregnancy. A non-profit health clinic in Milford said they estimate more than 300 students contracted a sexually transmitted disease in the past year. Officials also told the paper students as young as 12 years old reported being sexually active. The clinic eventually alerted the school district to the alarmingly high numbers. School officials then sent a letter home to parents on June 15. “It was sad to see the letter,” Tara Johnson, a Milford parent with a son in middle school, told the Times Herald. “We live in the kind of district where everybody works very hard to give the appearance that everything is perfect.”

A 15-year-old girl, who will enter tenth grade in the fall at Delaware Valley, told the paper she can’t believe the news. “That somebody in our school in northeastern Pennsylvania had HIV was just shocking,” said Rachel McKean. Kristen Bruce, a nurse practitioner with the Milford clinic, said most of the cases were the human papillomavirus (HPV). HPV infections are very common, according to the Mayo Clinic. It’s estimated that close to 25 million people in the U.S. have HPV infections [STRICTLY, a sexually transmitted disease], which can cause genital warts and related lesions. Some strains of HPV are linked to cervical cancer. Bruce told the paper she wasn’t surprised by the numbers, citing a recent CDC study that found at least one in four teenage girls nationwide, between the ages of 14 and 19, has a sexually transmitted disease.

TOPIC: Syphilis Skyrockets in U.S. -- STDs Raging in Gay/Bisexual Men

Article by Daniel J. DeNoon

A raging epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases in gay/bisexual men drove U.S. syphilis rates up 12% in 2007 -- the seventh consecutive year of syphilis increases. Meanwhile, a CDC study found that tests for another common STD -- gonorrhea -- miss one in three infections among men who have sex with men. Those findings alone are troubling enough. But the picture becomes bleaker against the background of a surging HIV epidemic. "This increase in syphilis represents a major concern for the health of gay and bisexual men," Kevin Fenton, MD, director of the CDC's HIV/AIDS center, said at a news conference. "STDs increase HIV transmission. And if a person is already HIV infected, syphilis can increase viral load [a measure of HIV activity in the body]." Fenton announced the new STD data at this week's National STD Prevention Conference in Chicago.

Syphilis Surges Again
The syphilis numbers are shocking because just a decade ago, the U.S. was on the verge of eliminating the disease. Now 3.7 out of every 100,000 Americans -- and 6.4 out of every 100,000 American males -- carry the infection, which can cause blindness, brain damage, and death if untreated. Rates among men are six times higher than rates among women. This, Fenton said, is largely because of huge increases in syphilis infections among men who have sex with men. About 60% of all recent U.S. syphilis infections occurred in these men. African-Americans continue to be disproportionately affected by syphilis. Syphilis rates are six times higher for African-American men than among white men, and 13 times higher for African-American women than for white women.

Read the entire article here...

EDITORIAL: What keeps coming to mind as I read these articles is that proverb: "Whatever a man sows, that he will reap." Many Americans have sewn sexual immorality and cheered for homosexuality for the past 30 years. Now, our society is reaping what we have sewn. One in four teenage girls has an STD. Syphilis is running rampant among homosexual men. HIV/AIDS is an ever rising tide among those men (and women) who choose to engage in risky behaviors such as homosexual sex, IV drug use and multiple sex partners. Our former President taught kids that oral sex isn't really sex. Madison Avenue offers sex in almost every advertisement -- from shoes to automobiles to restaurants. In the mall, Abercrombie & Fitch coaches young teen boys on how to seduce young teen girls, while the Body Shop shows tweens how to dress like prosti-tots.
Yes, we are reaping what we have sewn. It's hard to feel sorry for those who are infected. The risks are widely documented. The church has been at the forefront (although always maligned) of promoting abstinence and fidelity. Our culture is in a sexual disease ridden state -- and we can ONLY look in the mirror to find who should be blamed.

TOPIC: One in Four Women in Teens Have S.T.D.’s, Study Finds
Article by NY Times Lawrence K. Altman
The first national study of common sexually transmitted diseases among teenage women has found that one in four are infected with at least one of the diseases, federal health officials reported on Tuesday. Nearly half of African-American teenage women were infected with at least one of the diseases monitored in the study — human papillomavirus (H.P.V.), chlamydia, herpes simplex type 2 and trichomoniasis, a common parasite. That figure compared with 20 percent of white teenage women. The chart of HIV/AIDS infections (at right) shows that percentages are very close to the same as 2005 results.
The two most common sexually transmitted diseases (S.T.D.’s) among all the women tested were H.P.V. at 18 percent and chlamydia at 4 percent according to the analysis, which was part of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Among the infected women, 15 percent had more than one. Officials of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that the findings underscore the need for strengthening screening, vaccination and other prevention measures for S.T.D.’s, which are among the country’s highest public health priorities.

“High S.T.D. infection rates among young women, particularly young African-American women, are clear signs that we must continue developing ways to reach those most at risk,” said Dr. John M. Douglas Jr., who directs the centers’ division of S.T.D. prevention.

Federal health officials ask about different health and nutrition issues in the survey, which is conducted each year. The S.T.D. analysis was based on information collected in the 2003-04 survey. Participants in the statistically based survey are chosen on a random basis. The survey contacted 838 women ages 14 to 19 who agreed to be tested for a sexually transmitted infection. Extrapolating from the findings, researchers estimated that 3.2 million teenage women are infected with at least one of the S.T.D.’s
S.T.D.’s can produce acute symptoms ranging from vaginal discharge to pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) and also lead to long-term ailments like infertility and cervical cancer. The survey tested for strains of H.P.V. that are linked to genital warts and cervical cancer. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends annual screening tests to detect chlamydia for sexually active women under age 25. The federal agency in Atlanta also recommends that women between ages 11 and 26 be fully vaccinated against H.P.V. [I highly disagree with the CDC's recommendation. It is dangerous and unnecessary for those who are abstinent. HPV can be 100% prevented by not having sex before marriage... and marrying a man who does the same.]

EDITORIAL: Look around your neighborhoods, schools and social centers. To put it boldly, the percentages reflect the promiscuity of the culture involved. In the South at least, black girls are far more likely to be sexually active at a young age than any other ethnic group. White girls are second, with Latinos and Asians the least sexually promiscuous. We need to reach young girls, especially blacks, with the message that they don't have to be sexually active to make it in life (or to make a living). NO, I am not saying they are whores. What I am saying (at least in the South) is that a large number of young black girls get pregnant by the time they are 15 years of age -- and then go on welfare to sustain their income. It's a vicious cycle that steals lives, creativity and potential. Without name calling and hate mongering, the subject needs to be discussed and the cycle needs to be broken. But, that's another subject for another time...
The one sure way to prevent STDs in these unmarried, but sexually active girls (they are not "women" because the vast majority are not of adult age) is through abstinence. The myth of "safe sex" is a LIE. It is a false sense of protection that fails -- which this survey further underscores. I find it odd that the survey did not include HIV/AIDS -- which is also prevalent among promiscuous teens.
God's plan for our sexuality is abstinence until marriage. Then, fidelity / monogamy after marriage. IF everyone practiced the ONLY two moral laws regarding sex, STDs would be wiped out in less than three generations. Then again, so would teen pregnancy, 99.9% of abortions, all sexual abuse and the remainder of the gamut that causes young women (and men) so much anguish and pain. THINK about it -- many of the problems faced by teens and 20-somethings are related to what they think is love, but is usually just lust brought on by all the sexual images they see and hear every day.
One last word to the kids who grew up with Bill Clinton's definition of "sex". Oral sex IS sex -- and you CAN catch an STD from having oral sex (giving or receiving).

TOPIC: Top 'Gay' Organization Comes Clean: 'HIV is a Gay Disease'

by ChristiansUnite.com Staff

In a public statement last Friday, Matt Foreman, outgoing Executive Director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, rattled the homosexual activist community by joining the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), pro-family organizations and a growing number of homosexual activists willing to admit that homosexual behavior is both extremely high-risk and primarily responsible for the spread of HIV/AIDS in the U.S.

Addressing the topic of AIDS, Foreman drastically deviated from the "gay" lobby's party line by admitting, "Internally, when these numbers come out, the 'established' gay community seems to have a collective shrug as if this isn't our problem. Folks, with 70 percent of the people in this country living with HIV being gay or bi, we cannot deny that HIV is a gay disease. We have to own that and face up to that."

A little over a year ago, Lorri Jean, CEO of the Los Angeles-based Gay and Lesbian Center, similarly shocked the "gay" community by stating that, "HIV is a Gay Disease. Own it. End it." Foreman's admission comes on the heels of a letter from Matt Barber, Concerned Women for America's (CWA) Policy Director for Cultural Issues, inviting Foreman and other homosexual activists to work together in discouraging homosexuals from engaging in the high-risk behaviors researchers recently determined are responsible for the epidemic spread of a potentially deadly strain of staph infection among certain segments of the "gay" community. The CDC has acknowledged that many of those same high-risk behaviors, such as male-male anal sex, are chiefly responsible for spreading HIV/AIDS.
Matt Barber addressed Foreman's admission: "It's extremely encouraging to see Matt Foreman, a homosexual activist who has for so long been in denial about the dangers of the lifestyle he has promoted, publicly coming to terms with the undeniable perils of that lifestyle. I only hope he will now stop promoting homosexual conduct and push for other liberal elites, especially those running our public schools, to do the same. Educators must truthfully address the 'gay' lifestyle's potentially deadly consequences. It's criminally reckless for the National Education Association (NEA) and liberal educators to put political correctness and a deceptive political agenda above the lives, health and well-being of America's children. The evidence is there for all to see. 'Gayness' is not about 'who you are,' it's about 'what you do.' The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force has now, in effect, acknowledged that reality. Their honesty is refreshing and unexpected," concluded Barber.

Concerned Women for America is the nation's largest public policy women's organization.