With HIV and STD infection rates on the rise, many organizations are looking for new ways to target men who have sex with men. Locally, organizations including The Center, Family Health Services and Public Health Services of San Diego County have done outreach in gay bars, bathhouses and in public parks where men who have sex with men are known to meet. Additionally, the Internet has proven itself a useful tool for outreach to men who may be putting themselves at risk for contracting STDs, including HIV.

The Internet has created a new environment for sexually active men to network and contact one another with the intention of having sex – making them, some say, modern-day bathhouses. It is not uncommon to find multiple chat rooms in online services such as gay.com and America Online, and websites designed to help men meet one another, like Adam4Adam and Manhunt, which boast hundreds of profiles for men living in San Diego alone.

“The Internet has become such an important mechanism for socialization among gay and bisexual men,” said Dr. Jeffrey T. Parsons, an associate professor of psychology at City University of New York’s Hunter College and director of Hunter’s Center for HIV/AIDS Educational Studies and Training. “Some men rely completely on the Internet for finding partners and friends.”

Now Manhunt is stepping into the ring to help health organizations fight the spread of diseases including syphilis and HIV, both of which have been on the rise in the gay community in recent years.

“We decided in that last year that it was part of our broader commitment to the community and that it was a responsible decision,” said Phil Henricks, marketing manager for Manhunt. “As you know, some of the hookup sites sometimes have a bad reputation for being irresponsible and we wanted to address that, basically.”

Manhunt boasts over 200,000 members nationwide and serves as a way for men to meet other men online with a wide range of interests, including meeting up for sex.

“Whenever you engage in sexual activity, regardless of if you meet at a bar or online or on the street or in a night club, you’re running the risk of possible STD transmission,” Henricks added.

Manhunt has started to partner with health organizations, offering them free banner ads on their website targeted towards specific geographic areas. Health organizations can also obtain free full-access profiles where they can provide free information about their services as well as contact information for help. Members of Manhunt can contact these health agencies anonymously with health questions through their online profiles. So far, San Francisco is the only city in California to take advantage of the online offerings from Manhunt.

“On the Internet, I don’t think anyone here in San Diego is doing much,” said Dr. Robert Gunn, director of the STD and Hepatitis Prevention Program at Public Health Services of San Diego County. “San Francisco has been the leader in doing this; of course they’ve had such a larger problem than we have in terms of the number of syphilis cases and HIV has always been a big deal and a big issue in their population, so they have taken some of those forward steps.”

According to Gunn, 40 percent of the reported cases of syphilis in San Diego County in 2003 were among men who say that they had met their partners online. Currently, Public Health Services of San Diego County is using the Internet to locate partners of men who have tested positive for diseases such as syphilis.

“Our investigators have used the Internet when people give us Internet handles as a way to contact people,” Gunn explained. “We have used it and we have had successful contacts work out that way. When people receive these emails, all we know is their email name and address, and they have come into the clinic to get treated. It does work on an individual basis like that.”

Family Health Centers of San Diego, a public health agency that contracts with the county to do outreach on HIV education in local bars, bathhouses and public places such as Balboa Park where men meet other men for sex, is also beginning to explore the potential of the Internet to reach populations that they might not otherwise be able to contact.

“We’ve started exploring and using the Internet as an outreach method because we realized you can reach guys through the Internet that you can’t reach any other way,” said Bob Lewis, director of HIV services for Family Health Centers of San Diego. “I think it has great potential and we are moving in that direction.”

Addressing the idea of partnering with a website such as Manhunt, Lewis said, “We are very cautious about who we partner with. I think this is very admirable that they are looking to reach out and bring safer sex information to the people accessing the website, but at this point I can say that I would be very interested in getting more information.”

Manhunt has partnered with agencies in New York, Massachusetts, Florida and California. The organizations they work with range from public health organizations like the San Francisco City Department of Public Health to independently funded organizations like New York’s Gay Men’s Health Crisis.

Henricks said that the partnerships have proven to be successful. “The health organizations are thrilled to be working with us because obviously, their target audience is sexually active gay men,” he said. “Working with people and doing outreach on the Internet is a lot easier and more targeted.”

Local organizations that are interested in working with Manhunt in their education and outreach efforts can visit www.gayles- biantimes.com for further information.