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Gonorrhoea in homosexual men and media coverage of the acquired immune deficiency syndrome in London 1982-3 Although the number of cases of the acquired immune deficiency syndrome in the United Kingdom is still low at 51 (June 1984), there has been considerable media and public interest. Gonorrhoea is one of the most common diseases acquired by homosexual men. It has a short incubation period, and in the absence of routinely collected data on changes in sexual behaviour it serves as a reasonable surrogate index. A decrease of 39% was reported in the number of homosexual men with gonorrhoea in Denver between the beginning of 1982 and 1983.' We attempted to assess whether reports of the acquired immune deficiency syndrome in the national newspapers and magazines for homosexual people and on television altered the number of cases of gonorrhoea among homosexual men attending our department. Methods and results Patients attending this department are screened for infection with Neisseria gonorrhoea. We calculated the rate of gonorrhoea (number of patients with gonorrhoea/total number of patients with and without gonorrhoea) among homosexual and bisexual, and heterosexual, men attending our department from January 1982 to September 1983. The coverage of the acquired immune deficiency syndrome in the national newspapers was assessed from the records of the Hall Carpenter Memorial Archives, a charity that subscribes to an agency that monitors references tohomosexuality in national newspapers. Additional information was obtained from magazines published in London for homosexuals, the Haemophilia Society, the Gay Switchboard, and the Terrence Higgins Trust. Measurement was confined to the national newspapers published in London (including the London evening paper but excluding regional, Welsh, and Irish newspapers) and magazines published in London for homosexuals. Two indices were compiled: the number of references to the acquired immune deficiency syndrome and the length in column centimetres of articles. Television programmes broadcast in London were also recorded. Comparison between quarters was carried out using x2 analysis.

Modifications to the national recording system are necessary to overcome the problems highlighted by this study. These modifications could include classifying each case of genital herpes as primary, recurrent, or recurrent but not previously recorded, which would provide a more accurate picture of the size of the problem of genital herpes in the population.

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