Venereal Disease

Too many people who test positive for the AIDS virus at Baltimore's city-run clinics continue to engage in sexual intercourse without a condom despite counseling aimed at stemming the epidemic's spread, a researcher said yesterday.A new study has found that 15 percent of a sample group of 615 patients who received counseling after testing positive for the AIDS virus returned within a year with a different sexually transmitted disease such as gonorrhea or syphilis."Clearly, what we do now is inadequate," said Dr. Jonathan Zenilman, a Johns Hopkins specialist in infectious diseases who also works with Baltimore's sexually transmitted disease clinics.

Schaefer popularity down in new pollGov. William Donald Schaefer's popularity has plummeted, according to a new poll taken by Mason Dixon Opinion Research Inc..The poll, taken Friday through Sunday, showed that only 35 percent of Marylanders think Schaefer is doing an excellent or good job, while 62 percent rate his performance as poor or fair.Just 15 months ago, 68 percent gave him a favorable rating and 29 percent unfavorable.FORCED SCHOOL STARTA bill to require 5-year-olds to attend kindergarten in Maryland won tentative Senate approval yesterday after a spirited debate over the right of parents to control the education of their children.

Nurse Dorothy Elaine Whitehead walks into the classroom. She makes her way past students in wheelchairs and special medical seats, toward Shawn Coleman, 18, who lies on his right side, waiting for his lunch.Coleman was severely brain-damaged when hit by a car 13 years ago.Whitehead's presence makes him smile. She reaches under Coleman's shirt, finds his feeding tube and connects it to the intravenous bag holding his high-calorie formula.Whitehead is a school nurse whose job is in jeopardy because of state budget cuts.

Front-running Democratic mayoral candidates were quizzed on how they would restructure Baltimore city services as part of a downtown forum last night at the Enoch Pratt Free Central Library.Before 300 people, WJHU-FM radio host Marc Steiner also asked six candidates questions on crime, economic development and eradicating drugs.Northeast City Councilman Martin O'Malley spoke first, saying he would divide the city housing agency into two. Housing Commissioner Daniel P. Henson III serves as the chief administrator for the Department of Housing and Community Development and the Housing Authority of Baltimore City.

PUBLIC health officials grappling with how to stem the spread of AIDS should adopt a method used to combat syphilis for almost 60 years: contact tracing and partner notification.Even Baltimore, which leads the nation in the number of syphilis cases per capita, has successfully used contact tracing for that disease. Last year, the city recorded 458 syphilis cases, down from 667 in 1997.Contact tracing can work for AIDS, too. During the early years of fighting AIDS, it was understandable not to use such techniques.

Too many people who test positive for the AIDS virus at Baltimore's city-run clinics continue to engage in sexual intercourse without a condom despite counseling aimed at stemming the epidemic's spread, a researcher has said.A new study has found that 15 percent of a sample group of 615 patients who received counseling after testing positive for the AIDS virus returned within a year with a different sexually transmitted disease such as gonorrhea or syphilis. "Clearly, what we do now is inadequate," said Dr. Jonathan Zenilman yesterday, a Johns Hopkins specialist in infectious diseases who also works with Baltimore's sexually transmitted disease clinics.

WASHINGTON -- The Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps is requiring all ROTC midshipmen to sign a new affidavit saying they can be discharged and forced to pay back their scholarship if they are found to be homosexual.The military services and service academies have for years required their members to say whether they are homosexual and whether they had ever engaged in homosexual activity. But the new Navy policy seems to reinforce the policy and make it clear that it means to recoup education and training costs if an officer is discharged for homosexuality.

Herbal teas are once again touted as spring tonics as well as caffeine replacers, and herbal medicines compete with synthetic, high-tech prescription drugs as modern America reaches back to the future for that "natural" touch.But think about hemlock, curare and belladonna. You'll recognize these "all natural" herbs as some of nature's deadliest poisons. They sound a warning note in the rush back to ancient herbal remedies to cure modern ills.Herbs run the gamut from truly helpful, through ineffective, to mildly annoying and onward to deadly dangerous.

Why do some of our school board members, especially concerning sex, still believe in the expression: Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil? School board members Cheryl A. McFalls, Anne Ballard and JosephMish believe that having teachers inform students about such issues as birth control and AIDS "usurps parental authority."Egged on byeight vocal parents, the board voted against distributing in high schools a "teen health card" informing students that free condoms are available and that parental permission is not required to receive services.

Dr. Ernest Walter Shervington, who practiced internal medicine in Baltimore for nearly 50 years, died in his sleep at the Keswick Home where he had lived for the last two years. He was 89.He began his practice in the mid-1930s on North Carey Street. In 1953, he moved to a house at Harlem Avenue and Bentalou Street where he practiced until retiring in 1982."He was a family practitioner who was well-respected," said Dr. Joshua R. Mitchell, a friend for 30 years. "After working all day downtown, he'd come home and see patients from his home office.