Dear friends:

My skepticism meter is running after reading these wire stories about an alleged outbreak of typhoid fever among gay men last year in Ohio.

Too many times I have witnessed federal and San Francisco health authorities concocting scary stories about alleged new ways gay men are transmitting STDs, without much verifiable evidence to back up their claims. Just this year, the undocumented statements about surging HIV rates here widely spread, at a time when federal funding levels for HIV programs were under consideration. The attitude among SF and CDC officials is, “Need money from the feds? Prick more diseased blood from the gays. They won’t object, as long as we give them jobs.”

If the typhoid fever outbreak did indeed occur last summer, why did CDC authorities wait until the EIS conference in April to inform the public?  I’m pleased to learn health departments around the nation were notified, but I wonder why gay and mainstream news outlets were kept ignorant about the outbreak.

In science, and politics, timing is crucial. President Bush, according to an April 2 A.P. wire story, wants to eliminate $126 million from the EIS budget.

Perhaps the CDC officials waited until their 50^th EIS annual meeting to release information about the supposed typhoid fever outbreak to give more serious attention to the evidence, and to help generate articles with no skepticism by reporters.

The allegations that some of the gay men with typhoid fever did not cooperate with health officials seems part of pattern to portray gay men as the modern version of Typhoid Mary.

The A.P. says, “The CDC labeled typhoid a sexually transmitted disease for  the first time at a conference in Atlanta this week, urging infected patients to stop all sexual contact until they are clear of the disease.” Frankly, I  think the CDC’s ultimate agenda is to stop all sexual contact between gay men. Period. All the messages about gays from the CDC is that we are diseased homosexuals creating innovative ways of spreading STDs leads me to suspect CDC, and particularly Dr. Judy Wasserheit, the director of CDC STD programs, are campaigning to end gay sex.

As you read the wire accounts below, I ask you to be deeply skeptical about these CDC allegations. 

Michael Petrelis

Phone: 1-415-621-6267

Email: MPetrelis@aol.com

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Wednesday, April 25 5:42 PM ET

Officials Document Typhoid Outbreak

By ERIN McCLAM, Associated Press Writer

ATLANTA (AP) - Health officials say they have documented the nation’s first sexually transmitted outbreak of typhoid fever, a rare disease usually spread through tainted food and water.

A Cincinnati man passed typhoid to seven other men in the city who had sex with him last summer, federal researchers said Wednesday. It is treatable with antibiotics, but is occasionally fatal for victims who do not seek treatment. Typhoid is most often transmitted by swallowing food and water contaminated with human feces, which harbors a type of salmonella that causes the disease. But health officials found that none of the Cincinnati men shared food or drink.

The disease likely circulated by highly risky oral-anal contact among the men, said Megan Reller, an epidemiologist with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

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The CDC labeled typhoid a sexually transmitted disease for the first time at a conference in Atlanta this week, urging infected patients to stop all sexual contact until they are clear of the disease.

Judith Wasserheit, STD prevention chief at the CDC, said the discovery was disturbing but not necessarily surprising.“We are seeing substantial increases in sexually transmitted diseases among men who have sex with men in multiple locations across this country,” she said. Typhoid is marked by high fever, weakness, headache and, in some cases, flat, red spots on the skin.

About 400 cases are reported annually in the United States, four-fifths of them traced to overseas travel. Typhoid is preventable by a vaccine recommended to Americans who visit developing nations.

CDC investigators said the Cincinnati man spread typhoid last summer after catching it during a visit to Puerto Rico in May. It is unclear how he originally contracted the disease, Reller said.

The man then passed the disease to seven male sex partners, she said. An eighth man from Indianapolis caught typhoid after visiting him for the weekend, but said the two did not have sex. How he got typhoid is unclear.

The CDC alerted health departments nationwide of the outbreak in August.  The men were uncooperative with health officials, making it impossible to estimate how many other men might have been exposed, Reller said.“Getting the sexual histories from these patients was very difficult,” she said.

“What I am sure of is that I do not know the full story of how many contacts the other patients had.”

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Thursday April 26 10:31 AM ET

First U.S. Case of Sexually Transmitted Typhoid

CINCINNATI, Ohio (Reuters) - Health officials have documented the first incidence of sexually transmitted typhoid fever, an illness normally transmitted through contaminated food or water.

A Cincinnati man who contracted typhoid fever on a trip to Puerto Rico last year spread the disease to several men upon returning home through oral and anal intercourse, Cincinnati health commissioner Malcolm Adcock said.

Adcock said researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta have ascertained that the man was the source of the disease, which is relatively uncommon in the United States but a health menace in the developing world.

Adcock said epidemiologists confirmed that the man contracted the disease

while in Puerto Rico last May and transmitted it to at least seven male sex partners.

Typhoid, which is marked by high fever, weakness, and other symptoms that can last for a month, is usually spread through consumption of food or water contaminated by human fecal matter, which carries a type of salmonella.The illness is rarely fatal if treated with antibiotics.

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Thursday April 26 1:57 PM ET

Typhoid Fever Spread Sexually in Ohio Cluster

By Emma Patten-Hitt, PhD

ATLANTA (Reuters Health) - For the first time in the US, researchers have

documented sexual transmission of typhoid fever, a disease that is usually spread through drinking water or eating food contaminated with human feces.

The cases of typhoid fever had been spread sexually among a group of nine men

in Ohio, Dr. Megan E. Reller, of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

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on Wednesday at a meeting here.

Symptoms of typhoid fever include fever for three or more days, stomach pains, headache and loss of appetite. In some cases, patients have a rash of flat, rose-colored spots. Occasionally typhoid fever is fatal, according to the CDC. About 400 cases of typhoid fever are reported annually in the United States—most acquired abroad and brought back to the US.

Seven of the patients reported having sex with one man from Cincinnati who had typhoid fever, possibly contracted during a visit to Puerto Rico, according to Reller. An eighth man from Indianapolis caught typhoid feverafter visiting him for the weekend, but reported having only social contact. All of the patients became sick in the summer of 2000.

“This is the first recognized outbreak of sexually-transmitted typhoid fever,” Reller said, indicating that fecal-oral transmission during sex was the most likely cause. “We really do not know the true burden of sexual transmission,” she added.

Reller pointed out that condoms are unlikely to protect against transmission of this disease. “What I am sure of is that I do not know the full story of how many contacts the other patients had,” Reller said, noting that getting the sexual histories from these patients was very difficult.

“We suggest that patients with typhoid fever refrain from...sex until three stool cultures attained after treatment are negative, just as we would recommend for food handlers,” Reller noted.

The findings were presented at the CDC’s 50^th Annual Epidemic Intelligence Service Conference here.

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