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NEW YORK : Two New York men have been diagnosed with a rare sexually transmitted disease that has recently been making inroads among gay and bisexual men in Europe. The disease, a rare form of chlamydia known as lymphogranuloma venereum, or LGV, can cause serious illness, permanent disfigurement and fuel the spread of AIDS, according to New York health officials. "LGV is a serious condition and its emergence in New York City reflects continuing high levels of unsafe sexual activity among men who have sex with men," said the city's health commissioner Thomas Frieden. "It is also critical for gay...

Erasure star Andy Bell has shockingly admitted he wanted to be diagnosed with HIV. The openly homosexual singer revealed he was HIV positive in December - six years after he was diagnosed with the fatal disease - and admits he believed catching the illness was a re-affirmation of his homosexuality. He said: "You are going to think this strange, but I wanted to be HIV positive. I thought HIV was a touchstone of being gay." The 'Breathe' singer also says he doesn't think about dying, because he believes he can fight the disease for many years with the help of...

Bug chasers and gift givers probably can't hurt you. But they're trying to kill each other. You've probably heard of neither. And you probably couldn't fathom their taste in an astoundingly risky sexual behavior. Bug chasers are HIV-negative gay men hoping to contract the virus. Gift givers are HIV-positive homosexuals who enjoy obliging bug chasers. It's no urban myth. They're real - and they're here. You might think such a thing possible in San Francisco and New York. But bug chasers and gift givers practice their lethal thrill-seeking locally. "We have bathhouses in Chicago and we have adult bookstores in...

JONATHAN M. PERRY has never been shy about being identified as gay at Johnson C. Smith University, a historically black college here. He tells anyone who asks, and plenty who don't. At 6-foot-2 and a trim 150 pounds, he's hard to miss. He sometimes paints his fingernails and toenails black and wears flip-flops so no one will miss the fashion statement. He has an ''I Like Your Boyfriend'' T-shirt. ''I don't believe in having any skeletons in any closets,'' he explains. So Mr. Perry was a logical choice to speak at a sorority-sponsored forum on AIDS during his sophomore year....

AIDS rate for homosexuals climbs; data called 'astonishing'Dec 2, 2004By Michael FoustNASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--New statistics showing that homosexual men make up 44 percent of all new HIV and AIDS cases underscore the fact that homosexuality itself is unnatural, a prominent leader in the ex-homosexual community says. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released data Dec. 2 showing that the number of newly diagnosed HIV and AIDS cases has increased 11 percent among homosexual men. The data spanned a four-year period ending in 2003. Despite the fact that homosexual men make up only 1 to 2 percent of the population,...

ATLANTA, Dec. 1--A rise in new cases of AIDS and HIV infection among gay and bisexual men in many U.S. states, reported in a federal study Wednesday, has given support for concerns the disease is resurgent in the country. The report by the Centers for Disease control and Prevention, released in connection with World AIDS Day, said new HIV and AIDS diagnoses in 32 U.S. states rose 11 percent among gay and bisexual men between 2000 and 2003. Rates were stable among most other population sectors, and the overall infection rate rose to 19.7 cases per 100,000 people in 2003...

...Medical experts are observing the emergence of a relatively new strain [of Staph infections], known as community-acquired MRSA, among gay and bisexual men, athletes, prisoners and Native Americans. Since a staph outbreak among gay men in Los Angeles in early 2003, the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention identified five major factors that facilitate the transmission of the infection: close contact, crowding, cleanliness, contaminated items and surfaces, and compromised skin integrity, said Nicole Coffin, a CDC spokesperson. The compromised skin integrity category includes tiny abrasions that may occur during "manscaping" -- the cosmetic shaving of body parts popular with some...

'Not a simple answer' for desert’s syphilis problem By Brian Joseph The Desert SunPALM SPRINGS -- In the year since health officials warned of a growing syphilis problem here, the alarming but easily curable disease continues to overrun the Coachella Valley.Despite a year of education and testing efforts, Palm Springs alone has a syphilis rate of 81.8 per 100,000 people in 2003, twice the rate of the nation’s No. 1 city for syphilis, San Francisco.As of the end of August, 73 cases were reported in Riverside County, compared with 78 during the same period in 2003. In both years,...

Antibiotic-resistant strain of syphilis is spreading A fast-spreading mutant strain of syphilis has proved resistant to the antibiotic pills that are offered to some patients as an alternative to painful penicillin shots. Since the late 1990s, doctors and public health clinics have been giving azithromycin to some syphilis patients because the long-acting antibiotic pill was highly effective and easy to use. Four pills taken at once were usually enough to cure syphilis. But now researchers at University of Washington in Seattle have found at least 10 percent of syphilis samples from patients at sexually transmitted disease clinics in four cities...

HIV infections rise among gays More and more young homosexuals forget about the risks of AIDS By Peter-Philipp Schmitt Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung The test had been long overdue. But Tim decided to have it done once he realized that he had another problem anyway. “I only went because I had contracted syphilis,“ he says. The results were not the news Tim wanted to hear: He had HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Around Germany, increasing numbers of young German homosexuals like Tim are learning that they, too, are carrying around the deadly virus. While the number of new infections has...

Guest CommentaryA Pharmacist's View on Gay MarriageBy J.R. Schoenle, Pharm.D. June 29, 2004(AgapePress) - Having worked with AIDS patients and investigational drug studies for HIV at Johns Hopkins Hospital, I feel a lot of compassion for homosexual persons. But as a professional health care provider, I am compelled to educate people with medical facts regarding same-sex marriage. This is not a "privacy" issue. Gay activists have brought the gay lifestyle into the public square with their demands for "marriage" or "civil union." (The public has not gone into anyone's bedroom; rather, they have brought their bedroom issues out in...

(CNSNews.com) - Several homosexual advocacy groups are closed on Friday for a day of mourning -- but they won't be mourning President Ronald Reagan. Equality California, which is fighting to legalize same-sex marriage, announced that it would join the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force in closing its offices on June 11, 2004 in memory of the millions of people who have died of AIDS. "As California's state-wide LGBT advocacy organization, whose roots come out of the AIDS pandemic, we are closing in honor of our brothers and sisters who died as a result of President Reagan's silence and failure...

Health Many HIV-Positive Men Don't Realize It: Study By Randy Dotinga HealthDay Reporter WEDNESDAY, June 2 (HealthDayNews) -- A new British report suggests that one in 10 homosexual men who visit popular gay venues in London are infected with the AIDS virus, and a third of them don't realize it. In another disturbing finding, the researchers found the percentage of gay men who admitted engaging in the most dangerous form of unsafe sex increased at a fast clip over the four-year study period. The numbers won't come as a surprise to American researchers, who have been tracking similar trends in...

A drug-resistant form of gonorrhea with an overwhelmingly disproportionate effect on homosexuals is making its way eastward from Hawaii and California, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. The data presented "show that drug resistant gonorrhea is a rapidly emerging health concern, particularly for gay and bisexual men," the CDC's STD prevention director John Douglas told reporters last week. Incidences of the drug-resistant disease are 12 times higher for homosexual and bisexual men than for other men, based on data acquired in clinics from 30 U.S. cities between 2002 and 2003, the Washington Blade reported. Homosexual men...

In 1998, syphilis rates were so low the Centers for Disease Control announced a plan to completely eliminate the disease. The agency began an all-out prevention campaign, stepping up syphilis surveillance in New York City and the few counties across the country where it still existed. By 2000, the sexually transmitted infection was at its lowest point since 1941. Soon, the country's top doctors predicted, the dread illness that afflicted Henry VIII, Ivan the Terrible, and even a pope would be nothing more than an unpleasant memory, gone the way of smallpox and other eradicated diseases. But just six years...

'Crystal Meth' Use Boosts STD Rates Among Gay Men Thu Mar 11, 11:47 PM ET By Randy Dotinga HealthDay Reporter THURSDAY, March 11 (HealthDayNews) -- Crystal methamphetamine -- or "speed" -- seems to be a driving factor behind higher rates of sexually transmitted disease among gay and bisexual men. In one study from San Francisco, gay men who visited a health clinic were twice as likely to be infected with the AIDS virus if they had recently used the illegal drug. And they were nearly five times as likely to be diagnosed with syphilis. Armed with the new statistics, federal...

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - The Internet has played a significant role in the latest increase in cases of syphilis among gay men by introducing partners more likely to practice high-risk sex, according to a study released on Wednesday. About 22 percent of homosexual men diagnosed with early stage syphilis reported meeting one or more of their sexual partners through the Internet around the time they were infected, said the study by the Los Angeles Health Department. Researchers at a national conference in Philadelphia on the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases also said they found gays who used the Web to meet...

British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, St Paul's Hospital, Vancouver, Canada. OBJECTIVE: To assess how HIV infection and AIDS (HIV/AIDS) impacts on mortality rates for gay and bisexual men. METHODS: Vital statistics data were obtained for a large Canadian urban centre from 1987 to 1992. Three scenarios were utilized with assumed proportions of gay and bisexual men of 3%, 6% and 9% among the male population age 20 years. For each scenario, non-HIV deaths were distributed according to the assumed proportion of the total population (3%, 6% or 9%) but 95% of HIV deaths were distributed to gay and...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 20 (UPI) -- Syphilis rates rose dramatically for the second straight year in the United States, particularly among gay and bisexual men, a finding that has health officials worried about an increase in HIV/AIDS cases in the coming years. Overall, the U.S. syphilis rate rose by 9 percent between 2001 and 2002, the second consecutive increase from an all-time low in 2000, according to figures released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. The bulk of the increase occurred among men, rising by about 27 percent overall, including a staggering increase of more than...

<p>With a top national ranking it could surely do without, San Francisco has surpassed Detroit as the city with the highest per-capita rate of syphilis in the United States.</p> <p>Driven by an increase in new cases among gay white men, the nation's syphilis rate rose 9.1 percent in 2002, the second consecutive increase after a decade of decline that had raised hopes the sexually transmitted disease could be eliminated in the country.</p>