SDSU confirms syphilis cases
E-mails were sent to all campus members
By: Giselle Domdom, City Editor
Posted: 5/3/07
San Diego State students, faculty and staff members were notified via e-mail yesterday of a series of recently confirmed syphilis cases at SDSU.
An SDSU student was diagnosed with a case of the sexually transmitted bacterial infection in Student Health Services. The student's gender and date of diagnosis have not been released, Director of Media Relations Tom Hanscom said yesterday in a phone interview.
He said the case was then reported, as dictated by law, to the county of San Diego Health and Human Services Agency where workers asked the student about his or her sexual contacts. This led to a confirmed case involving another SDSU student and other multiple potential exposures, Hanscom said.
"The decision (to release the information to the campus) was made by Student Affairs, recognizing that this is a very close-knit community," Hanscom said. "We have the ability to communicate through a variety of means this potential exposure and considered it the responsible thing for us to do."
Two separate e-mails were sent out yesterday; one for faculty and staff members and the other for students. Faculty and staff members received the complete story immediately, but student e-mails directed them to WebPortal toclick onto two more links to access the syphilis case information.
Hanscom said the faculty and staff notification system allows the university to send out e-mails in a manner that will not be blocked by a spam filter. He said there was concern that sending a message with sexual words such as "penis" or "vagina" in the subject or body of student e-mails might be blocked by the spam filters of their various user accounts.
Members of the Greek community were some of the first students to hear the news as SHS representatives addressed the syphilis outbreak to about 800 Greeks during Unity Night on Monday.
Hanscom and Doug Case, the coordinator of the Center for Fraternity and Sorority Life, said the announcement at the Greek event was not an indication of greater group risk, but rather a timing issue and disseminating the information to a large group of students.
Hanscom said SHS is scheduling similar presentations with other campus student organizations.
"I don't have information regarding the infection outbreaks and whether or not any of the students are members of the Greek community," Case said. "If some of them were members, probably the community would be at a greater risk because a lot of them socialize. But I have not been given any indication that any of the students were Greek."
Hanscom said the notification aims to bring attention to all students.
"It is our intent, if anything, to air on the side of caution," Hanscom said. "It's always a good idea for students to practice safe relationships and always a good idea for them to monitor their health.
"The last thing we look to do is create some type of scare, but we certainly want everyone to show due diligence to their health and come in for testing."
A blood test is the easiest way to detect the curable infection. Those who have had unprotected sex within the last five months are highly encouraged to get checked.
-For free testing, call Student Health Services at (619) 594-5281. For more information about the outbreak, attend an information session at 3 p.m. today and tomorrow on the third floor of SHS.
