From: MPetrelis@aol.com Date: Thu, 27 Jul 2000 13:46:50 EDT Subject: NYT's Altman was wrong about SF syphilis rates [This email sent to: altman@nytimes.com] 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 Welcome to AIDS-STATISTICS 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: Click here: Tracing a Syphilis Outbreak Through Cyberspace 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. filemanager@qrd.org] ==================== Michael Petrelis Welcome to AIDS-STATISTICS www.AIDS-statistics.com 2215-R Market Street, #413 San Francisco, CA 94114