ROBESON TASK FORCE TARGETS SYPHILIS

LUMBERTON - Robeson County health officials hope a task force that
targets prostitutes will help eliminate syphilis in the county by 2005.

The county's Syphilis Elimination Task Force met Wednesday to discuss
new initiatives to reduce the number of syphilis cases in Robeson.

The county ranked first in the nation in 2001 for its syphilis rate -
73 cases per 100,000 people. Officials identified 144 new or existing
cases that year. In 2002, the rate was 53.2 cases per 100,000 people.

Between Jan. 1 and Sept. 30 of this year, 30 new cases have been
reported.

Syphilis is a sexually transmitted disease that can cause blindness,
heart disease and death. People who have unprotected sex or who engage
in high-risk behaviors are most susceptible to the disease.

Health officials say the task force would work to convince prostitutes
to change their lifestyle. Health officials say the number of syphilis
cases would decline if there were fewer prostitutes.

According to a recent survey by state and county health officials, 49
percent of the women in Robeson County with syphilis admitted having
sex for drugs or money.

"This is something we have got to start working on,'' said April
Oxendine. "We have a lot of young ladies and men walking the streets
in Robeson County. Some of them want to make a change.''

Oxendine, an outreach specialist with the Robeson County Health
Department, said the task force would help the prostitutes find
resources to get off the streets. They will be encouraged to join
classes and develop job skills. The task force plans to ask other
outreach agencies to help.

Health officials plan to have the task force in place in
January.

Health Director Bill Smith said it could be difficult to find jobs for
the group they are targeting.

"They will have to find a place to work,'' he said. "With the economic
climate, it will be tough trying to find them jobs.''

The task force plans to provide a one-stop location for prostitutes to
access mental health and substance abuse services, said Pete Moore,
the senior public health adviser with the state Department of Health
and Human Services.

"A lot of the time you are dealing with the same prostitute,'' he
said. "This way you can hook them up with services a lot better and
more efficiently.''

Cases decline

Moore hopes the county will be able to continue its downward trend in
cases. The county experienced a 47 percent decline in new syphilis
cases between 2001 and 2002.

The county Health Department and the state have spent nearly $750,000
over the past three years toward syphilis elimination, outreach
programs and screenings, Smith said. The county is one of eight in the
state to receive money from the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention to begin an initiative to eliminate syphilis by 2005.

"It will always be a challenge because of the large minority
population in Robeson County,'' Smith said. "If we don't hit zero, we
will be down to a handful. That's great since we were once the highest
in the nation.''

Although the county is seeing a decline in syphilis cases, the number
of HIV cases has risen. Oxendine said the county's HIV cases have
doubled in recent years. In 2002, 17 new cases were reported, compared
with 46 this year.

"It was expected,'' Moore said. "It is a known fact that if you have
an outbreak of syphilis, a couple of years later you will see a rise
in HIV. We have a lot of people screening for it. The more you test,
the more you are going to find.''

Another factor is that those at risk have not changed behaviors, which
could lead to syphilis and HIV, he said.