Hooking Up on the Internet
Chicago Tribune
Candace Purdom
September 28, 2003
Health officials expect the rates of sexually transmitted diseases to rise as more people use the Internet to meet for casual sex. Chicago is among several US cities now using the Internet for health interventions.
Andy Delicata, a disease intervention specialist at Chicago's Howard Brown Health Center, uses the Internet to contact people who tested positive for syphilis, so he can notify their sex partners. "Oftentimes, they only have an e-mail address or screen name," he explained.
Health educator Daniel Pohl offers information and answers questions for Howard Brown's predominantly gay clientele through a Web site (www.howardbrown.org) or by entering chat rooms. Although Pohl visits gay bars and other locations to talk to those at risk, on the Internet, "It's easier for guys to talk to me," he said. "They tell me more - and more private things - online."
Next month, Chicago's Syphilis Elimination Task Force will launch a new campaign funded by a $500,000 federal CDC grant. The effort will include a Chicago Transit Authority and neighborhood poster campaign and an interactive Web site at www.gettestedchicago.com.
Chicago is one of eight cities that have seen rising rates of syphilis recently. "We see fewer than 400 cases a year, which doesn't sound like a whole lot, but it's very disconcerting because of a high rate of co-infection with HIV," noted Beau Gratzer, men's health promotion manager at Howard Brown.
Some 300 public health professionals met in Washington, D.C., in August for a conference on STD/HIV prevention and the Internet. On the Web, "you can meet more partners faster and therefore have potentially more sex," conference organizer Mary McFarlane of CDC said. "We need to keep up with that [technology] as public health [officials] and to understand what the implications are, both for risk and prevention."