The San Francisco Chronicle

DECEMBER 21, 2004, TUESDAY, FINAL EDITION

SECTION: BAY AREA; Pg. B4

SAN FRANCISCO;

Health officials issue alert about rare sexually transmitted disease

By Sabin Russell

San Francisco public health officials issued a warning Monday that a rare and potentially debilitating sexually transmitted disease reported recently in the Netherlands has turned up among a small number of patients in the city.

Known as lymphogranuloma venereum, or LGV, the disease is a form of the common sexually transmitted infection chlamydia -- but this particular strain can cause scarring of the genitals and colon, and can produce a swelling and bursting of lymph glands near the groin.

Although the disease is seldom seen outside of poor, tropical nations, doctors in Rotterdam reported 92 cases among gay men during a 17-month period ending in September. Isolated cases have also been reported in Belgium, France, Sweden and Atlanta, Ga.

In November, doctors at San Francisco's City Clinic treated one man with the disease, and subsequent tests of stored specimens spotted three other cases that occurred this summer but had gone undetected by conventional screens.

None of the four patients who were found to have the bug in San Francisco had visited the Netherlands, an indication there may be other cases yet to be discovered in the city, said Dr. Sam Mitchell, a Department of Public Health epidemiologist.

The four cases in San Francisco were among gay men, some of whom also tested positive for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Mitchell said there is no indication that HIV-positive patients are at higher risk for complications of LGV, but there is concern that a patient with the chlamydia infection might be more prone to contract HIV because of the ulceration caused by the bacteria.

As unpleasant as this form of chlamydia may be, it is easily treatable if caught in time. "The idea is to knock it out quickly. If it circulates widely, it could be quite challenging," Mitchell said.

Treating LGV successfully requires a three-week course of antibiotics, instead of the single dose of medicine used to treat common strains of chlamydia. Because it is difficult to distinguish early infections of LGV from the more benign microbes, Mitchell said the city is recommending that doctors treat all cases of rectal chlamydia with the three-week regimen.

"We think doctors should err on the side of caution," he said.

City epidemiologists found the three additional cases by screening samples taken from more than 100 patients treated for rectal chlamydia in the past year.

[emphases mine]

As I said, the spread of LGV to American buttboyz was completely and utterly predictable.

At no time, however, did public health authorities make the one recommendation -- and you'll notice they don't in this article either -- which would have stopped LGV:

Stop doing anal.

Prob is -- and again, everyone knew and knows this -- that once this little genie was out of its bottle and up the communal rectum, there would be no way to stop it.

And there isn't.

LGV is now a reality in the lives of gay and bi men in America.

That was quick, wasn't it?

Unknown at Easter, an inescapable fact by Christmas.

Clearly the buttboyz just don't get it.

Do you?

Yesterday, some guy tried, repeatedly, to post in Frot Club about a car trip he was going to be making in late January on I-95.

His brilliant idea was that he would stop in every town and hamlet along the way and rub cocks.

What's wrong with that picture?

Well, let's say he finds partners in towns A, B, C, D, E, F, and G.

In town B, he picks up a variant strain of HPV.

Which he then passes on to the guys in towns C, D, E, F, and G.

Does our intrepid traveler care?

NO.

He's getting his rocks off and collecting a sexual scalp in each and every city on his route.

His ego gets a very temporary boost, while your health suffers.

But remember, he doesn't care.

He's "living in the moment."

Same with group sex.

There are people out there who are dumb enough to try to put together group frottage parties, and there are other people out there, even dumber, who will go to them.

Let's say a guy flies from Bangkok, where he's picked up a new strain of MRSA, to DC on Wednesday.

On Thursday, he goes to a group sex party in Northern Virginia with seven other guys, five of whom, including you, poor boy, acquire his version of MRSA.

And then you all go off and spread it to partners you "hook-up" with via the internet one-on-one.

That's why concurrency -- which we discuss in Why Be Faithful -- matters.

Because it's not just the guy you're having sex with.

It's the guys he's having sex with -- his "concurrent" partners -- whom you probably do not know about -- who are the problem.

When you have sex with him, you're having sex with them too.

You just don't know it.

Which is why you need to know your partner well, and be confident that he's your *only* partner.

Fidelity works.

Promiscuity doesn't.

But Bill, you'll say, I thought Frot was safe.

Yes, and this handy little chart, prepared by the same Dr. Klausner who's overseeing SF's LGV outbreak, elucidates that fact.

But, as I keep warning you, Frot will not remain safe forever.

Not if guys into frot emulate the *essentially analist* promiscuity of the buttfuck boyz and thus create niches which STDs like HPV will rush to fill.

So it's not enough to free yourselves from anal penetration.

Because promiscuity -- which is part and parcel of the buttfuck boondoggle -- promiscuity too is a snare and a delusion.

When I post these articles, then, it's not just to remind you of analism and its discontents; nor merely to point out the failings of our current public health policies.

It's also to warn you that no matter who you are or what you do, you cannot escape the biological consequences of your promiscuous actions.