Experts Back Bathhouse Regulation

By: DUNCAN OSBORNE in Gay City News

01/17/2008

Researchers and health policy experts are generally supporting the regulation of New York City sex clubs and bathhouses, saying the businesses are valuable for research, HIV testing, and prevention efforts.

"We have to up to 26 percent of non-gay identified people that we are testing," said Dr. Demetre C. Daskalakis, a professor at New York University's School of Medicine. "A lot of them don't know where to go to get healthcare."

Since 2006, Daskalakis has been conducting research funded by Bellevue Hospital in two of the city's bathhouses - the East Side Club and the West Side Club, both in Manhattan.

Daskalakis has tested roughly 1,000 men who have sex with men for HIV, screened some for sexually transmitted diseases, and referred men to health providers including Bellevue. What began as research has effectively become an ongoing clinic with these services available in both bathhouses for a total of 35 hours a week.

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