News: HIV and Syphilis Clusters Reported in Milwaukee
Milwaukee, Wisconsin—Health care advocates confirmed with Journal Sentinel an HIV and syphilis outbreak that affected at least 125 people in what reports are now calling as “one of the largest sexually transmitted infection ‘clusters’ in Milwaukee.”
“Cluster” is defined by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as “an unusual aggregation of disease that are grouped together in time and place.”
Melissa Ugland, a public health consultant, told Journal Sentinel that “this cluster was identified because the patients could all be connected, and were in contact with each other during a 12-month period.” Ugland added, “This is an epidemic people are not talking about enough, and it leads to people taking unnecessary risks.”
Most of the patients were men and 45% of them tested positive for HIV. In addition, at least a dozen are high school students while there were as young as infants (a total of three) who were reportedly born with syphilis in 2017.
Troubling #publichealth news, there has been an increase in new cases of HIV/Syphilis. Sadly this included infants in 2017.
On March 1st, MHD launched a commuter ad campaign with MCTS to raise awareness about sexually transmitted diseases. https://t.co/Cnk2inKOjo
— MKE Health Dept. (@MKEhealth) March 7, 2018
According to the health department, the rise on the sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in the entire city was observed among young people aged 15-24. This prompted the Milwaukee Public School System to work with the Milwaukee Health Department “to share information with young people in middle schools and high schools to keep them healthy and to protect their health.”
The number of cases is expected to rise as health officials attempt to find and reach out to sexual partners of the current patients in this cluster. Meanwhile, the Milwaukee Health Department launched a commuter ad campaign to help raise awareness on STIs and to promote their free and confidential testing and treatment services.
STD screening is important as many STDs don’t show symptoms! It’s important to take charge of your health and get tested. Testing and treatment services are free and confidential at Keenan Health Center.https://t.co/T4MFNxbjAC
— MKE Health Dept. (@MKEhealth) March 9, 2018
Thoughts? Share it with us in the comments section below.
I was diagnosed with siphilis a couple of years ago. I’m HIV positive and have regularly tested for STD’s but for some reason we were not testing for siphilis. Regardless, it was overlooked for several years to we did not know when I was infected. I had no symptoms. So I am writing this here, to encourage people when they see their physician, get tested at least yearly for siphilis if you are sexually active. There are many more infected individuals out there than we realize. And don’t be shamed. Its an infection. Catch it. Treat it.
Sounds like a lot of those young people are gonna have an awkward talk with their families. Sounds like there was some group action in play for that many to be linked.
Yet some people pretending PREP is a cure all prevent all. Food for thought dummies.
Not good and I live in Milwaukee County in Wisconsin. 😐
This is a *direct* consequence of the resurgence of bareback sex in the gay community. Medications only work if people take them, but condoms prevent the transfer of bodily fluids which spread disease to unsuspecting victims (some of whom might have no reason to doubt the fidelity of a partner).
Lets start asking the people we elect in any office , What are your plans to either cure or eliminate STIs? And what education programs will they come up with (that will truly work) to help stop STIs? Because we as Americans are NOT GOING TO STOP HAVING SEX AND MOST WILL NOT USE CONDOMS!!! So we need a country wide mandatory cure and vaccination shots
Why ask our elected people for a plan to cure or eliminate STI’s. My plan for all you drug users and tattooed and needle users and sniffers stop have sex with others. Your the reasons why the STI’s and HIV are on the rise. Sex is a natural part of life and condoms are a joke. If you take care of yourself and not inject all those bad things into your body to make you feel good is only in your ill fated mind. Bareback sex is the natural way of having sex. If you have a problem with my remarks grow up and take responsibility for your actions and not think that someone else should find a cure for your stupidity.
See, that’s because of people like you that the stigma is still going on.
Reading your comment is disheartening, nonetheless.
Too many guys using prep as a catch all. Not being safe
Just dangerous
This is just crazy, man, ‘why’ would otherwise intelligent people ‘allow’ themselves to be infected, so careless? Your good health is all you really have, its priceless for crying out loud!
Again, its always in this country, just another one of those “I’m not responsible” things about Americans psyche’s. I say Americans, for obvious reasons, comparably: our supposed level of education-yet, where’s the critical thinking in all this carelessness?
Medicines, are too heavily relied upon, ’cause they have no access to their brains once their dick hardens, apparently, “oops, my bad, wasn’t thinking, well, just pop a pill.”
It amazes me how so many guys are slaves to their sexuality, which makes them again, slaves to the pharmaceuticals, you take better care of your cars, clothes and homes. Its just so sad, you can’t trust anyone, ’cause they really can’t trust themselves to be responsible and careful. No better than a drug-addiction.
I guess its part of the “me-me, self-centered, selfishness” that gays are said to typically possess, this, is one of the really nasty pay-offs, that “just having fun” leaves you with.
“Most of those who were tested in the group were men and 45 percent were HIV positive…” according to Fox News.
It’d be interesting to see how they group was identified, how the interconnectivity became known.
I think many here have overlooked that condoms are not really effective at preventing syphilis transmission. The lesion does not just appear on the genitals. It can be in the mouth. It can appear on your fingers. The lesion can be on your nipples. It can appear around your genitals but not directly on them. So condoms aren’t effective in preventing syphilis transmission. I don’t think this is really an issue about unprotected sex but more so about how HIV medications and Prep could be increasing susceptibility to Syphilis. Several studies so far have shown this to be a real possibility. This is possibly the real reason something like this is happening.
This sadly DOESN’T surprise me in the least. Me & my current partner KNEW when we first participated in a group forum about Prep many years back when it first started & people were in the midst of knowing what Prep is, was, & how to use it. That SO MANY were focused on the prevention of HIV “the bug that kills you” with this new wonder drug that all else went out the window, because everything else didn’t kill you, & could be treated or cured.
Well this is what is seen even though the local health care providers said & “promised” that stuff like this wouldn’t happen because those who were on Prep would be tested every 3 to 6 months while on Prep & it would come up if they had any other diseases. Well that formula isn’t working as we see & what I had already predicted along with my partner.
The scary thing is, when we start hearing of a mutant strain of all or ANY of the above that qualify for STD/STI infections in being drug resistant, what then? We will start seeing a flashback of what people looked like in the 80’s & 90’s again especially with HIV/AIDS if that were one of the bugs that were to evolve. People do what they wanna do & don’t care, so here we are….