Syphilis Advisory Group / Internet Interventions Advisory Group

Syphilis Advisory Group / Internet Interventions Advisory Group

Meeting minutes April 23, 2009

Facilitated by: Millicent Freeman, Oscar Lopez, and Stephan Adelson

In Attendance::

Mark Johnson, Westchester County DOH

Sean Moore, NY State BSTDC

Peter Laquer, NYS AIDS Institute

Giovanni Koll, GMHC

Mark Kornegay, GMHC

Christopher Rodriguez, Ryan-Nena Community Health Center

Fay Barrett, Ryan Center

Tyler French, NYS A.I

Xavior Ford, FACES

Millie Algarin, Harlem United

Sonia Gonzalez, Love Heals

DOHMH Employees:

Susan Blank, BSTDC

Steve Rubin, BSTDC

Katherine Gregory, Health Media and Marketing

Kathy Middelton, BSTDC

Jennifer Greenberg, BSTDC

Rafael Ponce, HIV Program

Caroline Mills

Announcements:

Harold Levin, Hep Team NYC in collaboration with the NYC DOHMH Adult Immunization Program and the BSTDC will have a booth at all Pride events: Pride Fest, Bronx Pride, Brooklyn Pride, Queens Pride, and Folsom. We need CBOs that are cleared by the State DOH to conduct off site HIV Rapid testing to partner with us.

The Adolescent Initiative will be coordinating the annual Spring Fever, beginning May 15 – May 29, 08

The purpose of this event is to offer off site HIV and STD testing in Central Harlem at key locations. If you are interested in participating should contact Dawn Dickerson at (212) 305-1189.

Presentations:

As requested by the SAG members at the last meeting, Julia Schillinger presented preliminary data on Syphilis in NYC. 2007 by neighborhood, race, age and gender P&S Syphilis C data. . Interesting points included:

-  Syphilis elimination efforts began around 1999 at the exact time that Syphilis increased in MSM.

-  P&S Syphilis increased in NYC by 62% 2006/2007

-  80% of cases being diagnosed are now coming from private providers

-  Discussion around interview techniques and the role of providers, importance of having programs that address partner services in private practices, CBOs, etc.

-  Discussion around types of partner notification and educating patients on the importance of notifying partners. Possible programs that speak to ‘let them know’.

-  The Healthy Penis campaign was mentioned and discussed as a program that worked. Conversations included the differences between the MSM populations and social networks in regions where it worked and NYC. NYC needs more specialized programs that reach the diverse and scattered MSM populations.

-  Partner notification was discussed further and it was noted that Disease Intervention Specialist (DIS) do not have access to HIV database, that access is restricted by law. Sue Blank, noted that no one should wait months to contact a sex partner for follow-up. If the health department did that, they would lose creditability. The NYC BSTDC has an inSpot site, and created new syphilis awareness campaigns that will be in HX magazine and the NY Blade. It was noted by a SAG member that ad placement is important by the outreach efforts are more important. And the BSTDC and other agencies should also talk about and teach people to have greater social responsibility. We are all doing a lot of work to reduce the spread of disease and influence risk taking behavior, however , people are responsible for their own decisions to engage in risk taking behavior.

-  There was a significant rise in Syphilis in heterosexual women, discussion around the possibility that heterosexual men are exploring homosexual experiences and brining Syphilis into new social networks. Steve Rubin, said he is interested in talking to any CBO that is currently conducting HIV testing from mobile vans and would consider also offering STD, primarily syphilis testing.

·  Peter Laquer and Tyler French presented preliminary data from the “AIDS Institute Survey of Online HIV/STD Prevention”. The full presentation is available at www.stdpreventiononline.org within the Internet Interventions Advisory Group page. The presentation clearly spoke to the needs for statewide guidance and training regarding Internet Interventions. Peter also informed the group that the long awaited PCRS guidelines will be released by CDC very soon.

·  Stephan Adelson presented on the SEX::TECH conference that was held in San Francisco in January. The full presentation is available at www.stdpreventiononline.org within the Internet Interventions Advisory Group page.

o  The presentation mentioned the winner of the Fresh Focus Sex Ed Video Contest http://www.dogooder.tv/freshfocusvideocontest/

o  Mentioned the book “Totally Wired: What teens and Tweens Are Doing Online”. By Anastasia Goodstein

o  www.myblackbook.com – a website to track your sexual history

o  UR Health Styles produced in Massachusetts http://www.urhealthstyle.com/ a site that can easily be replicated

o  The STD Wizard http://www.stdwizard.org/ a site that makes recommendations on what tests to have taken

o  Bound, not Gagged a blog for sex workers http://deepthroated.wordpress.com/

o  The HIV and AIDS center in Second Life was discussed

o  The text messaging site www.sexinfosf.org was discussed

o  The site THINK HIV www.thinkhiv.org was shown

·  Xavior Ford and Millicent Freeman presented a new pilot project to reach teens with STD/ HIV and pregnancy prevention messages using the technology of cell phones. Teens were recruited to participate in the project calls Cells in the City. Youth were provided intensive STD and HIV education, they learned how to create story boards and turn them into animation. The messages can be sent via cell phone. Because many phones do not have the platform to play cell phone videos, the Cells in the City video clip is being posted on the My Space.com/cellsinthecity page. The page will have will have referral information, information about STDs and links to informative sites for youth. It was also suggested that we include the self risk assessment that is currently run on the STD wizard site. There was more discussion regarding outreach – on MySpace in particular. One organization was removed from the site, while another has had great success. The use of technology to reach teens will be placed on the IIAGs’ agenda.

·  Future IIAG meetings will be held separately from SAG and will be held every other month (6x a year). The next IIAG meeting TBD.

The next IIAG meeting will be held on Thursday, June 26th 10:00am at the Latino Commission on AIDS, located at 24 West 25th (between 6th and Broadway) 10th Floor.