Take it From Dr. Mitch

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How should the community address the stigma that comes along with any STD?

At AIM we look at it as an occupational hazard, and it kind of takes the shame out of it, doesn’t it? It would be like a construction guy smashing his thumb. But here, it’s chlamydia. Now, it would be an interesting question of how to address that within the general population because there’s so much shame and judgment.
People don’t feel shame when they have cancer or hepatitis; they’re not banished [from society]. With contraction [of HIV] in the gay community, people automatically think it’s either two guys butt-fucking or somebody sharing a needle. Junkies and faggots, that’s what they think.

Do other STDs facilitate the transmission of HIV?

Yes. People don’t realize this … any STD, any one of them—syphilis, herpes, genital warts, chlamydia, which is on the rise with men again—increases the risk of HIV by 75%. The reason why is really simple: We have white blood cells being shed from our bodies in vast amounts when we have these diseases. They’re coming out of the urethra, they’re coming out of the skin itself, and they’re coming out of the semen and other secretions, and this is almost like having a microabrasion, and in immunology this equals microabsorption. And people don’t realize that it’s vital to get screened for STDs. HIV is an STD, and it needs to be treated like one. When you get screened, you need to get screened for everything. Chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis, at the very least, and hopefully herpes as well. And genital warts.

A lot of medical doctors don’t have much education about STDs. The problem with herpes is the damn tests aren’t very good. We use antibody tests—we use two kinds of tests. The IGM means you got it in the last 13 weeks; the IGG means you might have got it as a child. So it’s in the systems of people. And if you tested 10 people in line at the grocery store, seven of them would come back positive for herpes antibodies and only about three or four of them would have had an outbreak at any time in their life. So it’s unfair to use it as a screening method. By the time you get the lesion, at that point it’s moot, because it’s already there. We don’t have very good technology like a PCR. [Editor’s note: The herpes blood tests at AIM can differentiate between the two types of herpes.]

Can herpes be spread without symptoms?

Nope. Only with an outbreak. But bear in mind that you can shed cells 72 hours before the outbreak occurs. It’s a sneaky little virus. And condoms don’t always help with this, because the sores can be [anywhere around the pubic region or anus]. So you really have to get a hand mirror or pull the mirror off the bathroom wall and put it on the floor and squat over it and get to know your body. And make sure it’s not a pimple or a shaving nick or clogged hair follicle. Get to know your body and really educate yourself on what it looks like.