Gonorrhea

Gonorrhea cases in Baltimore declined to a historic low last year while syphilis cases, in decline for four years, increased slightly, Dr. Peter L. Beilenson, the city's health commissioner, said yesterday. Efforts to get treatment for infected patients -- and to test their partners for infection -- have paid off in a continued decline in gonorrhea, Beilenson said. He also credited increased condom use among teen-agers and young adults, which is partly an outgrowth of rising consciousness about the risk of AIDS.

If indecent exposure laws aren't enough to give adventurous Pimlico infield visitors pause, here's another disincentive: The famous race course lies inside of one of Baltimore's statistical hot spots for gonorrhea. Just in time for the end of national STI Awareness Month (and, unintentionally, in time for the start of the Triple Crown at the Kentucky Derby on Saturday), staff recently added a set of maps to the city's STD page, showing Baltimore ZIP codes' rates for chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis in 2012.

The Anne Arundel County Department of Health is stepping up its campaign to fight gonorrhea after noticing an alarming increase in reported cases, the department announced yesterday.Reported cases have already surpassed last year's total, said Lisa Purvis, county director of communicable disease.As of July 1, 210 cases of gonorrhea, an infectious venereal disease, had been reported, she said. There were 204 cases reported last year.To combat the trend, the department will offer free testing at clinics and free fact guides about the disease and its symptoms.

Police have arrested the 22-year-old live-in boyfriend of a woman whose 7-year-old daughter contracted a sexually transmitted disease, charging him with second-degree rape. The suspect, a West Baltimore man who is not being identified to protect the privacy of the victim, was arrested Tuesday after giving an account of the incident to detectives in the Police Department's child abuse unit. The girl was taken to University of Maryland Medical Center on May 11 and was found to have gonorrhea.

WASHINGTON - The number of new gonorrhea infections in Maryland has dropped by half in the last decade, from 24,132 cases diagnosed in 1987 to 11,316 in 1996.While health officials cannot point to any one cause for the decline, they said it is at least partly attributable to the fear of another disease - AIDS - and the safe-sex message that has come with it."I really think the predominant reason for the decline in gonorrhea cases is the prevention effort related to AIDS," said Arthur Thacher, Prince George's County's health officer.

Baltimore's Health Department has ended the three-decade practice of tracing the sexual partners of people with gonorrhea, deciding to concentrate its efforts on the city's resurgent syphilis problem and its persistent AIDS epidemic.Health Commissioner Peter Beilenson said the city has by no means conquered gonorrhea, even though cases have fallen substantially over the past decade. He said Baltimore remains one of the top four cities for gonorrhea, and there is no guarantee that the illness won't rebound with the easing of surveillance.

Rates of gonorrhea, chlamydia and syphilis in Baltimore all fell in 2005, Health Department officials said yesterday. The decline extends long-term trends that began with stepped-up efforts in the 1990s to reduce rates of sexually transmitted disease in the city, which were then the worst in the nation. Since 1995, gonorrhea rates in the city have fallen 45 percent, from more than 1,000 cases per 100,000 population to 547 cases per 100,000, according to the Baltimore Health Department.

WASHINGTON - Maryland teen girls have one of the highest rates of gonorrhea infection in the nation and are more likely than their counterparts elsewhere to be unmarried mothers, according to a recently released report.Those statistics overshadowed the good news in the report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, which said that Maryland teen birth rates fell faster than the national average from 1991 to 1996.The report said teen births fell from 54 births per 1,000 females in 1991 to 46 per 1,000 in 1996, a drop of 15 percent.

In a year that saw Baltimore lose its distinction as the nation's leading spot for syphilis, the city last year became No. 1 for another sexually transmitted disease. Now, City Health Commissioner Peter Beilenson says he must turn his attention toward slashing the gonorrhea rate. A federal report issued yesterday placed the city at the top of the pack - ahead of such trouble spots as Richmond, Va., St. Louis, Rochester, N.Y., and Atlanta. "Actually, this is good news and bad news," said Beilenson.

Despite continuing declines in reported cases of sexually transmitted diseases in Baltimore, the city Health Department is making a push to identify people who are infected but don't know it. Dr. Peter L. Beilenson, the city health commissioner, said yesterday that he is urging doctors and health clinics to routinely screen teen-agers and young adults for gonorrhea and chlamydia using a simple new urine test. His comments came as researchers, reporting yesterday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, said that one in 12 young adults in Baltimore has an undiagnosed case of either chlamydia or gonorrhea.

Baltimore police are seeking to question a man who may have assaulted an 18-month-old girl who contracted the sexually transmitted disease gonorrhea, according to a city police spokesman. Police said they have tried several addresses for the man but had not found him as of Wednesday evening. The spokesman, Anthony Guglielmi, said Wednesday evening that state parole and probation agents requested and received a warrant charging the man with violating the terms of his release from prison.

WASHINGTON - Maryland ranked in the Top 20 states for a second year with the highest rates of chlamydia and gonorrhea and placed fourth for syphilis, according to the latest data from the Maryland health department. "We've been hovering in the top five [for syphilis] for the past few years," said Barbara Conrad, sexually transmitted disease prevention division chief for the Maryland Health Department, who expects 2008 data in the next month. Maryland ranked fifth for primary and secondary syphilis, second for congenital syphilis, 14th for chlamydia and 18th for gonorrhea in 2006.

Baltimore City health officials say a pilot program that allows people with sexually transmitted diseases to distribute antibiotics to their sexual partners appears to be working. Using three months of data, officials found that among patients with gonorrhea and chlamydia who visited two city health clinics and received extra antibiotics for their partners, the reinfection rate was 2.3 percent. That compares to a historical three-month reinfection rate of 3.9 percent, making the decrease 41 percent.

Baltimore health officials hope they will be able to help stem the spread of sexually transmitted diseases in Baltimore with a novel program passed by Maryland lawmakers. The three-year pilot project approved by the General Assembly would permit doctors to give patients with gonorrhea and chlamydia antibiotics for themselves and their sexual partners, even if they haven't been treated by medical personnel. "The governor has said he will sign it," said Sasha Leonhardt, a spokesman for the governor.

Bill limits legislators' scholarship power Legislators would no longer be able to award scholarships to their relatives or to the families of their colleagues under a bill passed by the state Senate yesterday. Members of the General Assembly get about $11 million a year to distribute in scholarships to college students, a system that has been subject to frequent criticism from government watchdog groups, who accuse lawmakers of using the money to reward friends or buy votes. The bill passed 39-8, with some senators saying the measure was a misguided attempt to legislate common sense.

Battling high rates of sexually transmitted diseases, Baltimore health officials want authority to send patients home with medication that their partners would use, even though the partners hadn't seen a doctor or been prescribed the drugs. Baltimore Health Commissioner Joshua M. Sharfstein is seeking legislation in Annapolis for a five-year pilot project. Acknowledging that the approach is a "little unconventional," he said it would help cut cases of gonorrhea and chlamydia. Medical personnel in city clinics treat patients for gonorrhea and chlamydia and send them home with a "partner notification card" asking the partner to come in for treatment.

WASHINGTON - Maryland ranked in the Top 20 states for a second year with the highest rates of chlamydia and gonorrhea and placed fourth for syphilis, according to the latest data from the Maryland health department. "We've been hovering in the top five [for syphilis] for the past few years," said Barbara Conrad, sexually transmitted disease prevention division chief for the Maryland Health Department, who expects 2008 data in the next month. Maryland ranked fifth for primary and secondary syphilis, second for congenital syphilis, 14th for chlamydia and 18th for gonorrhea in 2006.

An Anne Arundel County grand jury has indicted a 20-year-old woman on charges of statutory rape, alleging that she had sexual relations with a 13-year-old boy who contracted gonorrhea through their encounters. Alicia Thomas, who gave her address as the Parkway Inn motel in Jessup, was indicted Friday on 10 charges that include two counts of statutory, rape. According to the indictment, the child was sexually assaulted twice in February.

Rates of gonorrhea, chlamydia and syphilis in Baltimore all fell in 2005, Health Department officials said yesterday. The decline extends long-term trends that began with stepped-up efforts in the 1990s to reduce rates of sexually transmitted disease in the city, which were then the worst in the nation. Since 1995, gonorrhea rates in the city have fallen 45 percent, from more than 1,000 cases per 100,000 population to 547 cases per 100,000, according to the Baltimore Health Department.

Silver. It's not just for jewelry anymore. A Colorado company called Nexxion Corp. is hoping a thin film of silver oxide on medical devices will help prevent many of the 2 million infections that patients acquire in hospitals every year. The revival of silver - an ancient germ-fighter - is an effort to combat "nosocomial" infections, which strike 5 percent to 10 percent of hospital patients, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The cost of treating them averages $6,000 per patient, or as much as $10 billion a year.