FAIRBANKS, Alaska (AP) – Alaska continues to rank high nationally in the rate of chlamydia cases but relatively low in the most serious sexually transmitted disease, HIV, according to reports by the state Division of Public Health.

The 2006 figures were compiled by the Centers for Disease Control.

Alaska ranked first or second in chlamydia, 25th in gonorrhea and 28th in syphilis but low in HIV.

“We have a low prevalency rate in the state and we would like to stay that way,” said Mollie Rosier, manager of the Section of Epidemiology’s HIV/STD program.

The most common method of HIV transmission in Alaska was men having sex with men. Other categories included heterosexual contact with a partner known to have HIV or injection drug use.

Rosier said statistics were divided into two time periods because there were not enough cases for year-to-year analysis: 1982-2002 and 2003-2007.

There were 1,206 known HIV cases in Alaska from 1982 to 2007. Thirty-seven first-known HIV diagnosis cases occurred in 2007. Of the cases reported, 81 percent of people with the disease were males and 58 percent were white.

The chlamydia bulletin said the disease plays a role in facilitating HIV transmission. However, with such a high rate of chlamydia and such a low rate of HIV, it was impossible to tell if chlamydia played a role in contraction of HIV in Alaska, Rosier said

The bulletin stated that 4,911 cases of chlamydia were reported in Alaska during 2007, an 8 percent increase over 2006. That was part of a significant increase of chlamydia cases in Alaska since 1996, reaching a rate of 49 cases per 100,000 people on average.

The program’s Donna Cerere prepared the bulletins and said there was no easy or simple answer to why Alaska has such a high rate of chlamydia and gonorrhea. The rise could be a byproduct of a more sensitive test, she said.

Chlamydia and gonorrhea can be treated with antibiotics. However, the more times a woman contracts the disease, the higher the risk of infertility, Cerere said.

SANTA ROSA, Calif. (AP) – Santa Rosa’s city council has chosen a new mayor to replace Bob Blanchard, who died of cancer earlier this month.

Vice Mayor John Sawyer will take over for Blanchard, and also become the city’s first openly gay mayor. He will fill the remaining six months of Blanchard’s term.

Santa Rosa’s mayor is chosen among the elected city council members for a two-year post.

Sawyer, who describes himself as a fiscally conservative Democrat, has served on the City Council since 2004.

Blanchard died June 14, just 17 days after he resigned his post to focus on his battle with cancer.

SAN DIEGO (AP) – The Kansas Bioscience Authority is providing $3.7 million for research on cancer, HIV and osteoporosis as well as increased development of new medicines.

The state-created agency announced the investments at a convention in San Diego on June 18, saying it hopes to highlight the existing capacity for bioscience research in Kansas.

Lenexa-based ImmunoGenetix Therapeutics Inc. will receive $420,000 to help with a vaccine designed to improve immune responses in patients who are HIV-positive. OsteoGeneX of Kansas City, Kan., will get $375,000 for research on osteoporosis and other bone disorders. Other grantees will receive money to build drug-testing labs and cancer treatments.

The authority is also offering $2.5 million to attract national cancer researchers to work with researchers in Kansas.

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) – A citizen’s initiative campaign to repeal Maine’s gay rights law and seeking roadblocks to same-sex marriages is being abandoned.

The Christian Civic League of Maine’s Michael Heath says the evangelical group that led the push is “pulling the plug.” Heath says the group collected only a third of the number of voters’ signatures it wanted during the June 10th primaries and failed to draw the volunteer support it had hoped for.

Besides wiping Maine’s law protecting gays from discrimination off the books, the initiative sought to bar the use of state funds by the attorney general’s office for its civil rights teams and reaffirm Maine’s law that restricts marriages to one man and one woman.

TULSA, Okla. (AP) – Archbishop Desmond Tutu has joined others in a beefed-up effort to persuade U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., to drop his hold on a global AIDS bill.

Speaking June 18 from South Africa on a conference call, the retired Nobel laureate said that when the U.S. takes such action, other countries follow with their own commitments, the Tulsa World’s Washington bureau reported.

He did not refer directly to Coburn, but pleaded with Congress to make “God’s world a better place” and for the “sake of the future” to expedite the passage of the legislation.

Other key supporters of the bill did challenge Coburn directly, describing passage of the bill as urgent and saying it needed to be signed by President Bush before the G8 Summit next month.

They also questioned what they understand is Coburn’s insistence that the bill include an earmark on the amount of funding that will be spent on treatment.

Dr. Paul A. Volberding, the director of the Center for AIDS Research at the University of California, San Francisco, said those who run the AIDS program do not need to be encouraged to spend money treating the disease.

Joanne Carter, the executive director of RESULTS Educational Fund, referred to the bill in historic terms and said inaction would have repercussions for millions.

She said the bill would also fight tuberculosis, one of the biggest killers of those with AIDS, and malaria, warning that people could survive AIDS, only to die of TB.

Coburn, who declined to comment Wednesday, reportedly has holds on scores of bills. Holds are allowed by Senate customs, and senators use them to either kill legislation or at least delay it.

A bill to reauthorize the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief has passed the House.

SALEM, Ore. (AP) – Social conservatives and church groups are admitting defeat in their efforts to collect signatures for initiatives to repeal two Oregon gay rights laws in this November’s election.

The campaigns were aimed at derailing a domestic partnership law and another new law banning discrimination based on sexual orientation. Both were enacted by the 2007 Legislature.

Opponents say they are dropping their efforts to qualify the repeal initiatives for this fall’s ballot because neither has received a state-approved ballot title and the deadline for turning in signatures is only a few weeks away – July 3.

Former state Sen. Marylin Shannon, a Brooks Republican who was co-sponsor of the measure to repeal the domestic partnership law, said opponents aren’t going to give up and will work to place a repeal measure on the 2010 ballot.

“There should be a vote of the people on this,” Shannon said.

But the state’s leading gay rights group, Basic Rights Oregon, says the latest failure by opponents to force a statewide vote on the issue shows that a growing number of Oregonians support giving same-sex couple rights and protections similar to marriage.

“It’s a further indication that there is a sea change in Oregon on this issue,” said Jeana Frazzini, the group’s executive director.

PITTSBURGH (AP) – Pittsburgh will recognize long-term commitments of unmarried partners, allowing both same-sex and straight couples to share employee benefits.

The bill passed Tuesday in a 7-1 vote, bringing cheers from the audience.

Councilman Bruce Kraus wrote the legislation along with the council’s president, Doug Shields. Kraus says the bill shows that Pittsburgh is progressive and will attract good-quality employers to the city.

Under the new law, two city residents who are not too closely related to be considered married under state law are eligible to show evidence of their relationship. A $25 fee makes the registration official.

Employers could use the registration to grant shared benefits, though there is no obligation.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) – Doctors are calling on state lawmakers to ditch a requirement that they seek written consent from the patient before performing an HIV/AIDS test.

The doctors say the consent forms are tedious and make it harder to screen patients early in their disease. They say early screening is important, especially with HIV rates in Rhode Island on the rise.

The doctors hope House leadership will advance the bill, which has been stuck in committee, before the General Assembly adjourns.

Though the law would do away with paperwork, it would still require the prior knowledge or consent of patients.

Steven Brown, the executive director of the Rhode Island affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union, says he opposes the change and doesn’t think written consent forms are overly burdensome.