Health officials in New York City have issued warnings about two new strains of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) affecting homosexual and bisexual men.

The first, lymphogranuloma venereum, or LGV, is a form of chlamydia known for two decades in the tropics, but which in recent months jumped to Europe and now to New York. Among other things, it can cause permanent damage to the bowels and increase the risk of contracting HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C and other STDs.

On the heels of that disturbing announcement came one even more troubling—word of a rare and aggressive form of HIV/AIDS in one man that is resistant to most drugs and progresses rapidly to full-blown AIDS in a matter of a few months.

Some had predicted that this deadly development was only a matter of time, as the AIDS virus is well known for its ability to mutate—a primary reason that no effective vaccine has been developed.

With the development of powerful (and extremely expensive) drugs in the 1990s, many developed a false sense of security, thinking that AIDS was no longer such a deadly threat and, if infected, they could continue life pretty much as usual. Many homosexual men reverted to unprotected sex with many partners, as evidenced by increasing rates of syphilis, chlamydia and other STDs.

The man infected with this latest deadly strain illustrates the problem health officials face in trying to keep the disease under control. The man admitted to having had hundreds of sexual partners, many in sexual marathons fueled by methamphetamine, a powerful illegal stimulant.

Patrick McGovern, executive director of Harlem United Community AIDS Center, explained that "people become hypersexual when they're using crystal [methamphetamine], but crystal by itself can limit your ability to function sexually. So people combine it with something like Viagra, that lets them keep going for hours."Dennis DeLeon, the president of the Latino Commission on AIDS, said men using such drugs commonly have sex with 10 to 20 partners in a single night. Methamphetamine "is a drug where they just lose count," he said.

Such depraved practices bring to mind the words of the apostle Paul in Romans 1:24, where he notes that because men reject the idea of a great Creator and Lawgiver, God "has given them up to their own vile desires, and the consequent degradation of their bodies" (Revised English Bible). (Sources: Associated Press, Newsday, The New York Times.)