In Brief
<b>Canada fights syphilis spread</b><br>TORONTO — Canadian authorities are battling the world’s largest syphilis outbreak.
Canada fights syphilis spread
TORONTO — Canadian authorities are battling the world’s largest syphilis outbreak. The Canadian Press reported that syphilis has spread widely through the slums of Vancouver since 1997 when it was imported by a traveller. In an effort to control the outbreak, the Canadian health department has hatched a strategy in which street nurses walk from door to door trying to find out who sleeps with who. They also comb bars and hotels looking for patient’s recent sexual partners and persuading them to go for tests and treatment.
Herpes drug controls risk
BOSTON — Daily treatment with the anti-virus drug valacyclovir can cut the risk of spreading genital herpes by half among people who practise safe sex, a study in New England Journal of Medicine has shown. But the likelihood of transmitting the sexually transmitted disease during the eight-month study of nearly 1,500 couples was relatively low, even among those who did not take the drug, the study says. The chance of passing herpes to a partner was just 3.6 per cent among 741 couples who only used safe sex practices such as using a condom and avoiding sex during an outbreak.
TORONTO — Canadian authorities are battling the world’s largest syphilis outbreak. The Canadian Press reported that syphilis has spread widely through the slums of Vancouver since 1997 when it was imported by a traveller. In an effort to control the outbreak, the Canadian health department has hatched a strategy in which street nurses walk from door to door trying to find out who sleeps with who. They also comb bars and hotels looking for patient’s recent sexual partners and persuading them to go for tests and treatment.
Herpes drug controls risk
BOSTON — Daily treatment with the anti-virus drug valacyclovir can cut the risk of spreading genital herpes by half among people who practise safe sex, a study in New England Journal of Medicine has shown. But the likelihood of transmitting the sexually transmitted disease during the eight-month study of nearly 1,500 couples was relatively low, even among those who did not take the drug, the study says. The chance of passing herpes to a partner was just 3.6 per cent among 741 couples who only used safe sex practices such as using a condom and avoiding sex during an outbreak.