Subject: NYT's Altman was wrong about SF syphilis rates
From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 27 Jul 2000 13:46:50 EDT

[This email sent to: [email-masked]]

July 27, 2000

Lawrence K. Altman, MD
The New York Times
229 W. 43rd Street
New York, NY 10036

Dear Dr. Altman:

You wrote in a July 1 New York Times front page above-the-fold story about an 
alleged increase of HIV transmission here, "H.I.V. Case Jump in San 
Francisco." 

Towards the end of your article you alleged that, "Syphilis rates have 
increased in San Francisco." You furthermore failed to provide readers with 
any reliable scientific citation for such a claim, and no actual numbers of 
syphilis cases were included in your story.

I wish to bring to your attention the July 26 "Tracing a Syphilis Outbreak 
Through Cyberspace" article from JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical 
Association, written by, among others, Jeffrey D. Klausner, MD, MPH; head of 
the San Francisco Department of Public Health's STD control and prevention 
branch, and Mitchell H. Katz, MD, the director of the San Francisco 
Department of Public Health.

In their concluding comments in JAMA, Klausner and Katz stated: "In San 
Francisco, there were only 40 cases of early-stage syphilis reported in 1998 
-- the lowest number ever reported -- and 41 cases in 1999."

I wonder how you could write about a supposed upsurge of syphilis cases in 
San Francisco, and less than a month later, San Francisco health officials 
report in JAMA that syphilis rates here are at "the lowest number ever 
reported?"

Seems to me there is a conflict of facts between what you reported on July 1 
and what is documented in the new JAMA.

Either you reported an error about the number of syphilis cases in San 
Francisco, or the health department is releasing confusing data. Of course, 
the possibility exists that you consider an increase of syphilis cases from 
40 to 41, an increase of 1, to be truly representative of increasing syphilis 
rates in San Francisco.

I, however, would characterize the syphilis rate here as stable, 
statistically speaking. Please take the time to read the full JAMA article 
below.

In the future, I would appreciate it if you referred to syphilis rates in San 
Francisco as at record lows, and also stable.

Sincerely,
Michael Petrelis
 <A HREF="http://www.aids-statistics.com/">Welcome to AIDS-STATISTICS</A>
www.AIDS-statistics.com 
2215-R Market Street, #413
San Francisco, CA 94114

-----------------
Pull quotes: 
"Case subjects were early-stage syphilis cases among gay men reported to 
SFDPH in July and August 1999 and were not necessarily part of the outbreak 
cluster."

"Following news reports of the syphilis cyberspace outbreak,(7, 8) the SFM4M 
chat room was deluged by online antigay hate messages.(9)"

"In San Francisco, there were only 40 cases of early-stage syphilis reported 
in 1998 the lowest number ever reported and 41 cases in 1999."
                 
                 *    *   *
Web link: <A HREF="http://jama.ama-assn.org/issues/v284n4/full/joc00896.html">
Click here: Tracing a Syphilis Outbreak Through Cyberspace</A> 
http://jama.ama-assn.org/issues/v284n4/full/joc00896.html

JAMA. 2000;284:447-449
Journal of American Medical Association
July 26, 2000
 
Tracing a Syphilis Outbreak Through Cyberspace  
 
by Jeffrey D. Klausner, MD, MPH; Wendy Wolf, MPA; Lyn Fischer-Ponce, MPA; 
Ilene Zolt, BA; Mitchell H. Katz, MD 

Context:  A recent outbreak of syphilis among users of an Internet chat room 
challenged traditional methods of partner notification and community 
education because locating information on sexual partners was limited to 
screen names and privacy concerns precluded identifying sexual partners 
through the Internet service provider.

[Deleted article.  [email-masked]]

====================

Michael Petrelis
 <A HREF="http://www.aids-statistics.com/">Welcome to AIDS-STATISTICS</A>
www.AIDS-statistics.com 
2215-R Market Street, #413
San Francisco, CA 94114