From: MPetrelis@aol.com Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2000 21:24:16 EDT Subject: SF health department releases raw, hard HIV data July 10, 2000 Steven Tierney Director of HIV/AIDS Prevention San Francisco Department of Public Health AIDS Office 25 Van Ness Avenue, 5th Floor San Francisco, CA 94102 Phones: direct: 415-554-9998 general: 415-554-9000 Dear Mr. Tierney: Thank you for twice sending me the number of HIV tests performed at Anonymous Testing Sites (ATS), paid for with federal funding through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. After years of requesting such basic data from the DPH and not receiving it, a hope your sharing of the data is taking the gay community and the DPH to a level of respect on the part of the DPH towards the community, especially regarding the desperate for DPH to release additional information about STD tests performed in SF with federal dollars. About the actual raw, hard numbers you provided, I see that in 1995 over 9,600 HIV antibody tests were administered, presumedly on many individuals who qualify as repeat testers, and that for 1999 the number of HIV antibody tests performed was around 6,100. That is a drop of approximately 3,500 tests performed. Might one say that the constituency in need of repeat testing is losing a collaborative spirit with the DPH? Are folks simply sick of the endless "voodoo epidemiology" of DPH and UCSF, homophobic CDC studies carried out by the Stop AIDS Project, sex negative warfare from SF AIDS Foundation, probing of gay sexual intimacy of the front page of daily papers, concocted syphilis outbreaks that then require DPH to drop 35,000 walking, ticking time-bombs in the form of an ad in the Bay Area Reporter? I hope the gay community will read the numbers you have provided and demand even more numbers. If these results are the best the DPH can provide as evidence that HIV transmission level are allegedly at "sub-Saharan African levels of transmission," according to DPH researcher Dr. Willi McFarland, then I wonder how low the HIV levels are in Botswana. Michael Petrelis ----------------------------------- Subj: data Date: 7/10/00 10:38:55 AM Pacific Daylight Time From: Steven_Tierney@dph.sf.ca.us Sender: Steven_Tierney@dph.sf.ca.us Reply-to: Steven_Tierney@dph.sf.ca.us To: mpetrelis@aol.com Good Morning Michael, Attached is the grid. Call if you need anything else. Steven ATS-Stats from LAB Results Year Total Tests Total Positives Total Negatives 1999 6151 149 (2.42%) 5995 1998 6931 141 (2.03%) 6778 1997 7067 145 (2.05%) 6918 1996 8683 194 (2.23%) 8485 1995 9698 271 (2.79%) 9427 ---------------------------------------- Subj: numbers Date: 7/10/00 10:41:03 AM Pacific Daylight Time From: Sttierney To: M Petrelis CC: steven_tierney@dph.sf.ca.su M I hope this works S _______________________________________________ ATS-Stats from LAB Results Year Total Tests Total Positives Total Negatives 1999 6151 149 (2.42%) 5995 1998 6931 141 (2.03%) 6778 1997 7067 145 (2.05%) 6918 1996 8683 194 (2.23%) 8485 1995 9698 271 (2.79%) 9427 ============================= Michael Petrelis Welcome to AIDS-STATISTICS www.AIDS-statistics.com 2215-R Market Street, #413 San Francisco, CA 94114