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Syphilis Is Soaring In SoHo, Murray Hill, And UWS
By
John Del Signore
Published Dec 10, 2012
Modified Dec 10, 2012
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DOH
By
John Del Signore
Published Dec 10, 2012
Modified Dec 10, 2012
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SoHo, Murray Hill, and the Upper West Side are some of the hottest places in NYC to pick up syphilis, according to new data from the NYC Health Department. There are 10 times more syphilis-infected residents in those neighborhoods than in most other neighborhoods; all told, 125 people out of a sample of 100,000 tested positive for the horrible disease in those three neighborhoods during the last survey. Of course, different neighborhoods suffer different afflictions.
A summary of the Health Department's latest data is below, and you can peruse all the city's STD reports here for great bedside reading at your leisure. Overall, the Bronx has the highest number of residents with STDs; almost 70% of the neighborhoods in Kings County have high rates of at least one STD. (The Tremont section has the worst rate of STDs in all of NYC; it's also one of the poorest communities in the United States.)
Chlamydia and gonorrhea are more prevalent in Northern Manhattan, the South Bronx, and central Brooklyn. Chelsea, the Rockaways, the South Bronx, North-Central Brooklyn are all in the top quintile for zip codes with HIV, AIDS, and Hepatitic C. But Staten Island, as it happens, has no high-morbidity zip codes. But don't go raw-dogging on the ferry just yet: within the borough, the Port Richmond neighborhood has the highest rates of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis. Stapleton-St. George, meanwhile, has the highest rates of HIV/AIDS, TB and hepatitis B and C on the island.
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John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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