The new American administration led by Donald Trump and Michael Pence promises changes likely detrimental to the public health infrastructure addressing sexually transmitted diseases, and to the funding streams that support research on prevention, treatment, and education. Rollback of expanded health access, insecurity among immigrant populations, loss of legal protections for sexual and gender minorities, and aggressive restrictions on sexual/reproductive health services are just the most general areas that affect STD at the intersections of

May 9, 2016 Dear Colleagues, With spring slowly changing to summer, I wanted to give you an update on what’s happening in the Association. First, it gives me great pleasure to announce and congratulate the richly deserving recipients of the 2016 ASTDA Recognition Awards: Dr. Anne Rompalo (Distinguished Career Award), Dr. Joan Chow (Achievement Award), and Dr. Lindley Barbee (Young Investigator Award).  Thanks very much to the members of this year’s awards committee that yielded

The American Sexually Transmitted Diseases Association (ASTDA) represents a very diverse membership, including basic scientists, researchers, clinicians, epidemiologists, public health officials, and disease intervention specialists. ASTDA lacks the staff and resources to serve the specific needs of its individual constituents, however, it should be well poised to identify and serve common goals.  In the following, I’d like to discuss our progress and plans in 5 strategic areas: collaboration, communication and translation, rejuvenation, and member engagement.

Dear Colleagues, Last week, the National Network of STD Prevention Training Centers (NNPTC) and the National Coalition of STD Directors held their annual meetings back-to-back in Savannah, GA. Obviously, this was no coincidence. Since the NNPTC started their new funding cycle last fall, there has been a clear expectation from CDC that the prevention training centers work closely together with the state and local STD AAPPS (Assessment, Assurance, Policy Development and Prevention Strategies) grantees and

Two weeks ago, the CDC released the long awaited 2015 edition of the Sexually Transmitted Diseases Treatment Guidelines. Rigorous review of relevant national and international STD research over the past decade and a consensus meeting of more than 100 STD experts in Atlanta 2 years ago have culminated in a 200 page document, not counting 60 pages of references. Many of our colleagues have spent an incredible amount of time in the review process, most

Hyatt Regency Atlanta hotel in Atlanta, Georgia on March 21-24, 2016. http://hivtestingconference.org/

Lippincott Williams & Wilkins (LWW) publishes the journal Sexually Transmitted Diseases owned by the American Sexually Transmitted Diseases Association. As the current president of the Association I was invited to the annual LWW Journals Symposium held last month in Philadelphia. This was a great opportunity to learn more about the journal from a publisher’s perspective and also meet with colleagues representing over 100 medical journals that are (a small) part of the LWW portfolio. As

Dear Colleagues, With disbelief and great sadness we are trying to absorb the news of the horrific events that claimed the lives of all 298 passengers on board the Malaysian Airways flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. Among them were many of our colleagues who were traveling to the International AIDS Conference in Melbourne, dealing a terrible blow to the international HIV/STI community. We extend our heartfelt condolences to the victims' family members, loved ones,