Study confirms the link between MSM and web. San Francisco officials use on-line interventions.

When the number of early syphilis cases in San Francisco increased from 41 in 1998 to 495 in 2002, and more than two-thirds of these cases also were HIV-positive, health department officials decided that new prevention interventions were needed. The syphilis outbreak also was notable in how it mainly involved men who have sex with men (MSM) by 2002. In 1998, only 22% of the early syphilis cases involved MSM, whereas in 2002, 88% involved MSM. Investigators with the San Francisco Department of Public Health discovered that a significant majority of the MSM syphilis cases listed the Internet as venue for meeting sexual partners.