Letters

Under no circumstances do the Editors forward letters from readers to other persons nor do they answer correspondence making such requests.

AS OTHERS SEE US

Dear Mr. Slater:

It is difficult to tell which part of your October editorial was the more personally disturbing the misinformation presented or the corruption of simple logic. It performed the great disservice of shaking the confidence of homosexuals as to the best approach in controlling their venereal disease problems and how they can help reduce the reservoir of infection in the community and thereby lower their own chances of infection.

Mr. Slater is not the only one who expresses amazement when first apprized of the percent of reported early infectious syphilis cases attributed to homosexual contacts. Most major health jurisdictions interview all early syphilis cases to determine the infected source and others exposed who may be still incubating the disease. A simple tabulation. of this information permits identification of unique problem areas; not only the homosexual whose oversensitivity in these matters is appreciated but also teenagers, certain socio-economic groups, etc. Any competence accrued to Mr. Slater through his limited and unstructured personal observations in statistically unacceptable to permit his discounting the validity of the information. One can raise legitimate questions as to the statistical accuracy of the figures quoted, and if the increasing rate is more apparent than real. This is only a matter of degree, and does not change the substantive position that homosexuals are ready and frequent victims of venereal infection. Dr. Cuming's statement, "No one knows the answer," was not meant to seriously question the validity of the statistics presented but only their interpretation.

On occasion it is possible that homosexual clients of public health clinics may have been offended by necessary actions of the worker, which in the retelling frequently become tales of persecution. To be completely honest, it is conceivable that in rare instances

there may be some truth in the client's allegations. However, one should not damn all public health clinics and workers on such limited examples. Using the same line of reasoning, private physicians could be considered incompetent to diagnose and treat venereal disease in the homosexual as some haven't seen a case in many years of practice, do not have the diagnostic tools readily at hand, are negatively oriented to the homosexual and venereal disease in general, etc.

The matter of confidentiality of venereal disease records in terms of public health facilities versus private physicians can become an endless diatribe. California Administrative Code Title 17 2636(b) specifically establishes the confidentiality of all public health venereal disease Reports of examinations, cases, infections and all records thereof

If in fact, a homosexual client suffers a tort by public health officials violating such confidentiality despite the legal injunction to the contrary, remedial action through the courts. leading to financial compensation for the offended is possible. One may be reasonably skeptical if all private physicians would withstand the flag waving blusterings or blandishments of an FBI agent on a security check or take time from his practice and at his own. expense hire an attorney to go into court to fight a subpoena. The best one can say is that the homosexual with a suspected venereal disease problem should seek a personally comfortable and competent medical setting. The private physician no more than a public health clinic has a monopoly in this area.

Mr. Slater presents himself as an informed observer in these matters but his experteese is seriously questioned by his stating: one of our very best preventives is to make sure it is homosexuals we are going to bed with." If he seriously believes the "old wive's tale" that venereal disease is a disease of females only, why didn't he preface his remarks with a statement to the effect that it only applies to bi-sexuals or to people so exposed. The simple fact is that syphilis is con-