CDC Blames Serosorting For Syphilis Jump

In a discouraging report that notes the seventh straight year of an increase in the rate of syphilis, Centers For Disease Control head of STD prevention Dr. John Douglas notes that most of the increase can be attributed to gay/bisexual men. Douglas goes on to blame the practice of serosorting among HIV-positive gay men for much of the rise in cases.

Douglas said many cases are occurring in HIV-positive men who are choosing other HIV-positive men as sexual partners. "Within that relationship, they are less concerned about the transmission of other conditions. They're not using condoms. They believe that their partner already has got the worst they can get -- they've got an HIV infection," he said.

Serosorting is the controversial practice of only having sex with partners of the same HIV status. The San Francisco Department of Public Health has speculated that the popularity of serosorting among HIV-positive men accounts for that city's simultaneous rise in STDs and decline in new HIV infections. Syphilis is sometimes transmitted by oral sex, for which virtually no gay men use condoms.