Venereal Disease

Stung by a report ranking Baltimore No. 1 in the nation for its rate of syphilis and gonorrhea, Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke vowed yesterday to crack down on the city's prostitution problem, which he sees as a leading cause in the spread of venereal diseases.Next year, Schmoke plans to publish in community publications and Baltimore's major newspapers the names and pictures of convicted "johns," men who hire prostitutes. In addition to publishing the names and pictures in newspapers, the mayor said he might show them to all media during his weekly news conferences.

LOS ANGELES -- Men undertaking risky homosexual activity are fueling a sharp increase in the incidence of syphilis and a smaller but concerning rise in gonorrhea resistant to commonly used antibiotics, federal researchers said yesterday. Those increases come at a time when venereal disease rates among historically important risk groups, especially women and minorities, have been declining, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. San Francisco, as in previous years, had the highest incidence of syphilis, with a rate of 45.9 cases per 100,000 people.

A parental-rights bill that would require a parent's or guardian's consent before physicians could treat a child for drug abuse, alcoholism or venereal disease is before the House of Delegates Environmental Matters Committee.The Evening Sun would like to know how you feel about such a bill. Should a child have parental consent before receiving treatment for drug abuse, alcoholism or venereal disease?Please call SUNDIAL, The Baltimore Sun's telephone information system, on a Touch-Tone phone.

Dr. Samuel P. Scalia, a retired Pikesville physician who conducted research on histoplasmosis and tuberculosis while working with the Baltimore County Health Department, died Tuesday of a neurodegenerative disorder at the Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care in Towson. The Timonium resident was 80. Born in New York City to immigrant parents from Sicily, Dr. Scalia graduated from Peter Stuyvesant High School in New York at the age of 16. He received a bachelor's degree from New York University and a medical degree from Hahnemann Medical College, now MCP Hahnemann University, in Philadelphia.

City Wide Coalition mayoral candidate A. Robert Kaufman said yesterday that if elected he would introduce a bill to create a red-light district for prostitution in Baltimore.Kaufman, 68, a perennial candidate and community activist, railed against the city's futile attempts to combat prostitution by repeatedly arresting prostitutes and their johns. In a statement that he issued yesterday outside the Central Booking and Intake Center on East Madison Street, Kaufman said making prostitution legal in a section of the city would also help reduce Baltimore's high rate of venereal disease.

Should physicians be required to obtain a parent's consent before treating a child for drug abuse, alcoholism or venereal disease or providing the youngster with prenatal care or sterilization?Yes, said several parents and members of groups that champion "traditional family values."They traveled to Annapolis yesterday to support a parental-rights bill that would require a parent's or guardian's consent for such treatment.Several physicians and counselors, however, also turned out to argue that some teen-agers would refuse to seek treatment if they had to tell their parents about it.The bill before the House of Delegates Environmental Matters Committee elicited a debate that carried both ethical and medical overtones.

LOS ANGELES -- Men undertaking risky homosexual activity are fueling a sharp increase in the incidence of syphilis and a smaller but concerning rise in gonorrhea resistant to commonly used antibiotics, federal researchers said yesterday. Those increases come at a time when venereal disease rates among historically important risk groups, especially women and minorities, have been declining, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. San Francisco, as in previous years, had the highest incidence of syphilis, with a rate of 45.9 cases per 100,000 people.

Sex among U.S. teen-agers has become so common that more than half of all young women have had intercourse by the time they turn 20, and a majority of those have had two or more sexual partners by that age, a new study has found.The change has been due mostly to a sharp rise in sexual activity among white and higher-income female teens, while intercourse levels among minority and low-income teens have increased only slightly in the last five years, according to thestudy released this week by the Alan Guttmacher Institute in New York.

At City Hall this week, those responsible for the enlightened laws of this community are looking at Baltimore's teen-age birth rate and its venereal disease rate, and they are declaring bravely and without fear of contradiction:"Oops."Everywhere you look, sexually active teen-agers are being encouraged to use birth control. There are condom posters in schools and on buses, and there are hospitals and health clinics urging the purchase of contraceptives. Seven middle schools and high schools are giving out condoms to teens.

San Luis Obispo, California. -- My 15 year-old patient with pelvic pain lay quietly on the gurney, as I asked her the standard questions.''Are you sexually active?''''Yes.''''Are you using any form of birth control?''''No.''''What about condoms?''''No.''Her answers didn't surprise me. Nor was it surprising that her pain was due to a rip-roaring gonorrheal infection, although it just as easily could have been due to some other venereal disease, a tubal pregnancy or even AIDS. As a specialist in emergency medicine, I treat teen-agers like this one every day. Most are sexually active.

IN CASE YOU hadn't noticed, the talk around here got very sexy last week. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, in her intimate way, talked about everyone's most delicate subject. And then, offering his own embrace, so did Peter Beilenson. By the end of the week, some of us practically needed a cigarette. Townsend, the lieutenant governor, brought us the breathless news about Maryland's rate of teen pregnancy, which has dropped for the seventh straight year. And Dr. Beilenson, the Baltimore health commissioner, told us that the city no longer leads the nation in the rate of venereal disease.

The Baltimore Fraternal Order of Police has demanded an apology from mayoral candidate A. Robert Kaufman, who recently issued a news release that said city police officers frequent prostitutes. Kaufman, founder of the City Wide Coalition, which pushes for city insurance reform, made the comments while proposing a red-light district in Baltimore for legalized prostitution. Kaufman, 68, said the move would help reduce the city's high rate of venereal disease. In the release sent to news media last month, Kaufman called prostitution a "victimless" crime.

City Wide Coalition mayoral candidate A. Robert Kaufman said yesterday that if elected he would introduce a bill to create a red-light district for prostitution in Baltimore.Kaufman, 68, a perennial candidate and community activist, railed against the city's futile attempts to combat prostitution by repeatedly arresting prostitutes and their johns. In a statement that he issued yesterday outside the Central Booking and Intake Center on East Madison Street, Kaufman said making prostitution legal in a section of the city would also help reduce Baltimore's high rate of venereal disease.

Stung by a report ranking Baltimore No. 1 in the nation for its rate of syphilis and gonorrhea, Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke vowed yesterday to crack down on the city's prostitution problem, which he sees as a leading cause in the spread of venereal diseases.Next year, Schmoke plans to publish in community publications and Baltimore's major newspapers the names and pictures of convicted "johns," men who hire prostitutes. In addition to publishing the names and pictures in newspapers, the mayor said he might show them to all media during his weekly news conferences.

Flag and petty officers reflect same standardsWith regard to your Nov. 26 editorial, ''The Admiral Walks the Plank,'' I find myself agreeing that Adm. Richard Macke's words were entirely inappropriate and utterly boorish.What I object to is your claim that his comments ''might have been understandable from a petty officer.'' Why?How do you come to the conclusion that a petty officer might be expected to make such a statement, but not a flag officer?The petty officer ranks are the backbone of navies the world over.

President Clinton has thrown all the clout at his command behind his nominee for surgeon general, Dr. Joycelyn Elders. His most pressing reason has nothing to do with Dr. Elders -- a personal friend -- or her fitness for the job. Mr. Clinton simply cannot abandon another black nominee after the Lani Guinier fiasco.But unlike Ms. Guinier, whose radical political solutions to racial problems had to be ferreted out of recondite law reviews, Dr. Elders broadcasts her hair-raising ideas. She has declared: ''The surgeon general really does have a bully pulpit, you know, and I'll use it.''Moreover, Dr. Elders' record as head of the Department of Health in Arkansas is a resounding flop.

Dr. Samuel P. Scalia, a retired Pikesville physician who conducted research on histoplasmosis and tuberculosis while working with the Baltimore County Health Department, died Tuesday of a neurodegenerative disorder at the Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care in Towson. The Timonium resident was 80. Born in New York City to immigrant parents from Sicily, Dr. Scalia graduated from Peter Stuyvesant High School in New York at the age of 16. He received a bachelor's degree from New York University and a medical degree from Hahnemann Medical College, now MCP Hahnemann University, in Philadelphia.

San Luis Obispo, California. -- My 15 year-old patient with pelvic pain lay quietly on the gurney, as I asked her the standard questions.''Are you sexually active?''''Yes.''''Are you using any form of birth control?''''No.''''What about condoms?''''No.''Her answers didn't surprise me. Nor was it surprising that her pain was due to a rip-roaring gonorrheal infection, although it just as easily could have been due to some other venereal disease, a tubal pregnancy or even AIDS. As a specialist in emergency medicine, I treat teen-agers like this one every day. Most are sexually active.

Most callers to SUNDIAL oppose a state parental-rights bill that would require a parent's or guardian's consent before physicians could treat a child for drug abuse, alcoholism or venereal disease.Of 415 callers yesterday, 240, or 58 percent, said consent should not be necessary, while 175, or 42 percent, said that consent should be necessary."It's Your Call" represents a sampling of opinions from certain segments of the community, but it is not balanced demographically, as would be done in a scientific public opinion poll.