title: Chancroid epidemiology in New Orleans men.
abstract: Epidemiologic, clinical, and microbiologic data were collected from 299 men with nonsyphilitic genital ulcer disease. One hundred eighteen (39%) were culture-positive for Haemophilus ducreyi, 57 (19%) were culture-positive for herpes simplex virus, and 124 (41%) were culture-negative. Patients with chancroid were significantly more likely than those with genital herpes to have been frequent users of alcohol (44% vs. 23%, P = .006). They were also more likely recently to have used cocaine (25% vs. 9%, P = .013), had sex with a prostitute (17% vs. 5%, P = .035), traded drugs for sex (16% vs. 2%, P = .005), and had a sex partner who used drugs (38% vs. 13%, P = .001). Culture-negative patients were similar to chancroid patients with respect to most epidemiologic risk factors. Despite the epidemiologic similarities, the clinical features of culture-negative ulcers resembled those of culture-proven herpes ulcers more closely than they did those of culture-proven chancroid ulcers. These data establish a link between chancroid in the United States and the use of crack cocaine.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Louisiana State University School of Medicine, New Orleans 70112, USA.
authors.forename: R P
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: DiCarlo
authors.forename: B S
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Armentor
authors.forename: D H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Martin
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000437:Alcoholism; D002602:Chancroid / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology / Q000821:virology; D016578:Crack Cocaine; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D006191:Haemophilus ducreyi / Q000302:isolation & purification; D006801:Humans; D008145:Louisiana / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D012307:Risk Factors; D011477:Sex Work; D012747:Sexual Partners; D018139:Simplexvirus / Q000302:isolation & purification; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000150:complications
chemical_list: D016578:Crack Cocaine