Ottawa sets up testing booths at bathhouses amid gay syphilis epidemic
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| English: This photograph shows a close-up view of keratotic lesions on the palms of this patient’s hands due to a secondary syphilitic infection. Syphilis is a complex sexually transmitted disease (STD) caused by the bacterium Treponema pallidum. It has often been called "the great imitator" because so many of the signs and symptoms are indistinguishable from those of other diseases. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Ottawa Public Health is warning that syphilis is dramatically on
the rise in active homosexual males, stating last month that it has seen a 76
percent increase from the number of cases reported last year and that over 90
percent of new cases are among active homosexual men.
The city’s public health department is so concerned about the
outbreak that it has set up testing booths at local bathhouses where homosexual
men gather.
“Syphilis is highly infectious,” said Patrick O’Byrne, a
registered nurse and Sexual Health Centre spokesperson for the public health
department, to homosexual news service Daily Xtra.
“The other risk is that people often don’t even know they have
it. There are classical symptoms that can be easily missed or misclassified,”
he said.
The highly contagious bacterial disease is transmitted through
skin-to-skin contact by an infected person and is often passed through genital
contact with the mouth and anus. Symptoms are often mild and can include a red
skin rash that does not itch on the palms of the hands or soles of the feet. If
left untreated, syphilis can damage the heart, liver, eyes, and brain, leaving
dreadful long-lasting effects. It can eventually kill the infected.
“If left untreated, syphilis is fatal,” said O’Byrne, adding that
the city’s public health department is urging active homosexual men to get
tested.
Ottawa is not the only major Canadian city experiencing disease
outbreaks in the homosexual population. Earlier this year health care
authorities in Newfoundlandwarned the
public of a
significant increase in the numbers of syphilis cases among homosexual men in
the most populous region of the province.
The outbreak is not just confined to North America. A new study
in the UK this
summer found that cases of syphilis and gonorrhea among homosexual males was considerably
higher than that of the general population, prompting health experts to say the
problem must be a public health priority and that this is likely just “the tip
of the iceberg.”
Pro-life-and-family leaders have long warned that sex taken out
of the context of one man and one woman committed to one another in the
life-long and exclusive relationship of marriage will inevitably lead to
perverted and distorted sexual practices, increased rates of promiscuity and
disease, social breakdown, and numerous wounded and broken individuals.
