Wealth Paper

CHICAGO (AP) - U.S. syphilis cases climbed for the seventh straight year in 2007, and increases in the disease among gay men and blacks largely contributed, government researchers reported Wednesday.
The trend can be partly blamed on too few gay men getting recommended annual screenings for syphilis and other sexually transmitted diseases, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, citing studies released at an STD conference in Chicago.
While the number of cases still is relatively low - 11,181 last year - the trend worries public health officials, who say better awareness and screening is needed.
About 60 percent of syphilis cases last year occurred in gay men, compared with just 5 percent in 1999, according to preliminary CDC data presented at the conference.
The main symptom is painless sores at the site where the syphilis bacteria entered the body. It is easily treated with antibiotics if caught early; if not, complications can include blindness and organ damage. Syphilis also increases susceptibility to AIDS infections, and can be fatal to infants who get it from infected mothers during pregnancy.
The data show the syphilis rate increased about 12 percent between 2006 and 2007, to about 3.7 cases per 100,000. That’s a jump from 9,756 cases in 2006 to 11,181 last year, CDC researchers reported.
It’s also a 76 percent increase since 2000, when the rate was 2.1 per 100,000.
Among black men, rates jumped 25 percent to almost 22 cases per 100,000. Among black women, there was a 12 percent increase, to about 5 cases per 100,000.
On the Net:
CDC: http://www.cdc.gov
AP-NY-03-12-rs to meet the needed reductions, and areas with the worst pollution are likely to have as long as a decade to comply.
Ozone is a product of nitrogen oxides and other organic chemical compounds from motor vehicles, power plants, manufacturing and industrial plants. As it comes into contact with the sun’s rays it is seen as the smog that hangs in much of the nation’s air, aggravating respiratory problems for tens of millions of people.
An estimated 85 counties of the more than 700 that have monitoring stations exceed the current 80 parts per billion concentration, according to the latest EPA calculations. More than 320 counties exceed the tighter 75 parts per billion standard.
Health experts say smog under the current ozone regulation - even in areas where the limit is being met - causes hundreds of premature deaths among the elderly and health problems for thousands of young children and people with asthma and other respiratory illnesses.
An independent EPA advisory group of scientists last year said an ozone standard of 60 to 70 parts per billion is needed to provide an adequate margin of protection for the millions of people susceptible to respiratory problems. A similar conclusion was reached by a second advisory board on children’s health.
In December, 111 health scientists, in a letter to Johnson, urged the EPA to adopt the science panels’ findings.
Clean air advocates called the latest EPA reduction a move in the right direction - but also a political compromise that does not go far enough.
“It’s disheartening that once again EPA has missed a critical opportunity to protect public health and welfare by ignoring the unanimous recommendations of its independent science advisers,” said William Becker, executive director of the National Association of Clean Air Agencies, whose members will be developing programs to meet the federal air quality requirement.
Becker acknowledged that the tighter the standard the more difficult it will be to meet, but he said: “The public deserves the right to know whether the air they breathe is healthy.”
In recent weeks, some of the most powerful industry groups in Washington have waged an intense lobbying campaign at the White House, urging the administration to keep the current standard.
Electric utilities, the oil and chemical industries and manufacturing groups argued that lowering the standard would require states and local officials to impose new pollution controls, harming economic growth, when the science has yet to determine the health benefits conclusively. The 80 parts per billion standard was enacted by the EPA in 1997, but its implementation was delayed for several years because of court challenges by industry groups.
“Hundreds of counties haven’t been able to meet the current standard set a decade ago,” said John Kinsman, senior director for environment at the Edison Electric Institute, which represents most of the country’s power companies. “Moving the goalpost again will inflict economic hardship on those areas without speeding air quality improvements.”
The EPA has said, based on various studies, cutting smog from 80 to 75 parts per billion would prevent between 900 and 1,100 premature deaths a year and mean 1,400 fewer nonfatal heart attacks and 5,600 fewer hospital or emergency room visits. A separate study suggests that tightening the standard to 70 parts per billion could avoid as many s 3,800 premature deaths nationwide.
The EPA by law is not supposed to consider economic cost in establishing the federal health standard for air quality. The agency has estimated that new pollution control efforts to comply with a 75 parts per billion standard would cost as much as $8.8 billion a year, although it acknowledged that does not take into account reductions in health care costs that could be even greater.
On the Net:
Environmental Protection Agency: http://www.epa.gov

via AOL

WASHINGTON - The U.S. syphilis rate rose for the seventh straight year in 2007, driven by a continued surge in cases among homosexual and bisexual men, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Wednesday.

Since 2000, when the national syphilis rate sank to a low of 2.1 per 100,000 people after a decade of progress in the 1990s, the rate has soared by 76 percent, the CDC reported.

Homosexual and bisexual men accounted for 64 percent of syphilis cases in 2007, up from about 5 percent in 1999.

CDC officials expressed concern not only because the recent increases in this bacterial sexually transmitted disease follows years of declines, but also because syphilis can elevate a person’s risk of being infected with the AIDS virus and the odds of giving it to someone else.

They also called rises among women and blacks troubling.

The overall national rate of syphilis rose by 12 percent in 2007 from 2006, reaching 3.7 cases per 100,000 people, based on preliminary CDC data released at a meeting in Chicago.

The rate for men was 6.4 per 100,000, a 14 percent rise from 2006.

The number of syphilis cases nationwide jumped to 11,181 in 2007 from 9,756 in 2006, with men accounting for six times as many cases as women. Rates for men and women had been roughly equivalent a decade ago.

Syphilis hit the black community very hard, with rates six times higher for men and 13 times higher for women than among whites, the CDC said. The rate for black men, 21.5 cases per 100,000, has risen 99 percent since 2003.

Syphilis rates have been surging in homosexual and bisexual men in the past decade, particularly among those who are highly sexually active with multiple sex partners.

RISKY BEHAVIOR

“Having multiple sex partners and other high-risk behaviors like not using condoms do put you at higher risk for HIV and syphilis,” CDC epidemiologist Dr. Hillard Weinstock said in a telephone interview.

“Syphilis can increase the likelihood of HIV transmission two to fivefold. And CDC recommends that sexually active men who have sex with men get tested for syphilis, HIV and other STDs at least annually,” Weinstock added.

“It is imperative that we make STD screening and treatment a central part of the medical care for gay and bisexual men,” while also finding ways to avoid these infections including HIV in the first place, said Dr. Kevin Fenton, who heads the CDC’s STD, AIDS, tuberculosis and viral hepatitis prevention effort.

Weinstock said despite the increases of this decade, syphilis rates remain lower than in the past.

After reaching 50,000 cases and a rate of 20.3 cases per 100,000 people in 1990 — the highest rate since 1949 — public health efforts helped drive down the rate to 2.1 per 100,000 people in 2000.

“We are concerned that the increases that we’re seeing now could continue,” Weinstock said.

Syphilis is passed person-to-person through direct contact with a syphilis sore. Transmission of the organism occurs during vaginal, anal or oral sex. Pregnant women with syphilis can pass it to their babies.

via MSN