Recent reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate that binge drinking is actually a bigger problem than anyone realized. Statistics recently reported by the CDC indicate that one in six adults in the U.S. binge drinks an average of four times a month. Yikes! This statistic, in and of itself, is both surprising and concerning.

Here we are again, at the end of the year and preparing to embark on another, or in the words of John Lennon, “another year over and a new one just begun.” In my role within public health, I once again find myself sitting in my office and reflecting on our current status in the HIV epidemic – what we can celebrate and where we can we improve, and that reflection identifies both change and stasis and a continued need for prevention.

The recent news in my little world of STDs seems to be focused on gonorrhea and it certainly is cause for concern. The news, more or less, revolves around the possibility that gonorrhea is no longer a treatable infection in some areas. Neisseria gonorrhoeae, better known as gonorrhea, is a...

The year 2011 marks the 30th anniversary of AIDS, and what a wild 30 years it has been. The waves of change with this epidemic have come and gone, but as we reach 30, it is clear that the wave is back and it is a big one. The current wave seems to be strengthened by increasing drug use within...

Public health news of late has talked a lot about a respiratory infection caused by the Bordatella pertussis bacteria. Due to the nature of the symptoms, pertussis infection is commonly referred to as whooping cough. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have announced many...

I am going to start this article with prostatitis 101, with the caveat that I am really branching out from STDs and into urology (the study of the male urinary tract) when I do. Although the former is really more of my area, I often have prostate-related conditions as well as STDs. This leads...

I am reminded that last January, a good friend reported to me that her New Year’s resolution for 2010 was to start drinking beer, wine and coffee. As you may have already guessed, she had grown up in the LDS faith and felt that her palate had always been limited to child-like proportions:...

If any of you remember, it was around this time last year that all the headlines were about swine flu, otherwise known as novel H1N1 influenza. In my little world of public health, it seemed like that was all any of us could talk about. This was a emerging strain of influenza that had not been...