San Francisco Department of Public Health

Afflicted: STD Rates Are Rising, but No One Knows Why

Naloxone Is Cheapest Way to Stop Heroin Overdoses, S.F. Researchers Say

If you are worried that your loved one might be one needle away from overdosing on heroin, then keep reading. A new study released this week says that the antidote naloxone is definitely the most cost-effective way to prevent people from dying after they overdose on drugs, which is now the leading ... More >>

Health Officials Ask Gay Men Traveling to New York for Sex to Get Vaccinated for Meningitis

If you are a gay man and making plans to ring in 2013 in New York City, be sure to get your shots before you go. Health officials are asking homosexual men to play it safe and get vaccinated for Meningitis before traveling to New York where there's been a recent outbreak among gay men. On Novemb ... More >>

Have You Properly Observed Global Female Condom Day Yet?

Today is Female Condom Day, where women and gay men -- or any closeted Republican who likes anal sex -- are being asked to pay respect and attention to the condom just as they would a sucker on National Lollipop Day.That means you should definitely have a quickie today -- you deserve it.It's the fir ... More >>

Cafe for All Seasons Closed Down Due to "Severe" Cockroach Problem

First rodents, now roaches. San Francisco's food producers can't seem to keep the pests away.The San Francisco Health Department has reportedly closed down West Portal's Cafe for All Seasons after inspectors discovered a "severe infestation" of cockroaches squatting in the eatery. According to ... More >>

Rabid Bats Found Near Lake Merced

Yikes! San Francisco health officials found five bats with rabies in the Lake Merced neighborhood, and want you all to watch out. The Health Department and the Mayor's Office issued a written warning to residents last night, and papered the neighborhood with flyers alerting people about the latest c ... More >>

Has Hing Lung Really Been Shut Down for Six Months?

​The English-language newspapers and food blogs haven't made mention of it, but in early December, the San Francisco Department of Public Health shut down jook hall and longtime SFoodie favorite Hing Lung (674 Broadway) -- and not a temporary closure, either. The dining room of the space has ... More >>

Pros and Condoms: S.F. Emphasizes HIV Treatment, but a New Generation Advocates Bareback Sex

Asians Attack City for Lack of HIV Prevention Programs

Yo, where's the Asian Healthy Penis? ​The San Francisco Department of Public Health is known for being particularly hip and inventive with its STD-prevention campaigns targeting gay men. Based on the progressive campaigning the DPH has conducted in the past, including the Healthy Penis campaign (h ... More >>

Underground Market Remains Closed; ForageSF to Make Case to City Attorney

slowpoke_sf/FlickrThe underground market​Health inspectors are holding the line on their decision to shut down the popular ForageSF underground food market, insisting in a meeting yesterday with ForageSF founder Iso Rabins that vendors obtain necessary licenses before the market can reopen.Rabins ... More >>

Underground Market Remains Closed; ForageSF to Make Case to City Attorney

slowpoke_sf/FlickrThe underground market​Health inspectors are holding the line on their decision to shut down the popular ForageSF underground food market, insisting in a meeting yesterday with ForageSF founder Iso Rabins that vendors obtain necessary licenses before the market can reopen.Rabins ... More >>

No More Grasshoppers at La Oaxaqueña

La Chiquita/FlickrChapulines, or grasshoppers, in Mexico.​ KGO TV reported yesterday that the San Francisco Department of Health has banned La Oaxaqueña Bakery & Restaurant (2128 Mission St.), one of the only Oaxacan restaurants in the city, from selling chapulines, or dried grasshoppers. Wh ... More >>

Medical Marijuana Dispensaries Must Release Names, Addresses of Pot Growers, City Says

The Green Scare​Medical marijuana patients don't seem to care where exactly their cannabis is grown. As long as the pot has been lab-tested and is free of mold and pesticides, patients seem satisfied. But that information alone is not enough for the San Francisco Department of Public Health anymo ... More >>

E-Cigarettes: How Long Before San Francisco Bans Them?

e-addictions can be regulated, too ​It wasn't enough to restrict smokers so much so that about the only place they can light up now is in the path of oncoming traffic. San Francisco is now looking at tossing out electronic smokers from their local bar.The FDA ruled today that e-cigarettes are in f ... More >>

You Can't Cry Your Way Out of a Speeding Ticket Anymore

You've got it all wrong, officer.​Cops hate to cite speeding drivers almost as much as speeding drivers hate getting tickets. Police are sick and tired of the whining and crying and worse -- the verbal abuse they get when pulling drivers over. Perhaps that might influence them to look the other wa ... More >>

Homelessness, Weather: The Things Tourists Hate Most about S.F.

Homeless are also victims of the crappy weather in San Francisco ​Two things in San Francisco any tourist will almost certainly encounter -- foggy weather and panhandlers. That also happens to be the two issues that irritate visitors the very most about our fair city, as confirmed by a recent San ... More >>

Arc Ecology: E-Mails Between City and Lennar Aren't So Scandalous, Though 'Look Bad'

There's no covering THAT up. ​Arc Ecology's director Saul Bloom has reason to be bitter with the city. Since 2006, his environmental non-profit received hundreds of thousands of dollars in city contracts to monitor and educate the public about the environmental clean-up and redevelopment work at t ... More >>

A Valentine's Day Fact -- STDs Are on the rise in San Francisco

Sexy time stats​Leave it to the San Francisco Public Health Department to use Valentine's Day as a way to get people to not want to have sex.Health officials decided to use this hallmark holiday to tell us the hard, cold truth about our Valentines -- they aren't so pure after all. As it turns out, ... More >>

Marijuana Roundup: The Year In Pot

​How was your 2010? For the cannabis community, it was a wild flip of the calendar, with dispensaries opening and closing, police raiding, a medical cannabis luminary thrown in jail for meth charges -- and we vaguely remember something about a legalization ballot measure. There's still time y ... More >>

Whooping Cough Epidemic Prompts Possible Crackdown on Unvaccinated Kids

​So far this year, whooping cough has killed five babies in California. Although none of those were San Francisco children, cases of whooping cough in this city have increased sixfold -- and now the San Francisco Department of Public Health is considering a crackdown on children who are not vaccin ... More >>

New Female Condom Campaign Targets Gay Men in San Francisco. You Read That Right.

The female condom is awkward. ​Cheaper female condoms! Come get yer cheaper female condoms!Yeah. That's really what's up. A newer, cheaper female condom,  FC2, as in, Female Condom 2 (wildly creative, right?) was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2009. It costs about 65 per ... More >>

Illegal Pot Delivery Services Can't Be Stopped

Liberty Bell TempleHere comes the pot man! Who's gonna stop him?​Lower Haight resident Aaron Chandler is a pot dealer. Or, the erstwhile employee of Project Homeless Connect is the operator of a legitimate medical marijuana delivery service. Which one is it? Neither? Both? It all depends on y ... More >>

Clubby Health Department Spends $856,315 Annually on Professional Dues

Join Us!​We knew health-care professionals were clubby, what with their white coats and golf vacations. A new San Francisco Department of Public Health report reveals they're clubbier than we could have dreamed: The department spent $856,315 the past fiscal year on membership dues for 123 health-c ... More >>

Anthony Mata Dead, Five Others Critical From Possible Tainted Drugs at Cow Palace Rave

'The Dream' turned into a nightmare for some rave attendees this weekened​The San Mateo County coroner confirmed to SF Weekly that 23-year-old Anthony Mata of Santa Clara is dead following a very bad trip at the weekend's Pop 2010 music festival at the Cow Palace. Along with Mata's death, a handfu ... More >>

Will Zeitgeist Have to Choose Between Letting Patrons Smoke or Eat Burgers?

Nicole N./YelpS.F.'s newly extended smoking ban could radically alter patio bars that serve food.​Yes, secondhand smoke is a bummer. But the expansion of the smoking ban in San Francisco could extinguish some really great places to smoke in the city. Zeitgeist's outdoor patio, for one. The ex ... More >>

The Definition of the World 'Incidental' To Determine Zeitgeist Smokers' Fate

​We informed you yesterday that the Zeitgeist outdoor patio, perhaps San Francisco's most appropriate place to slowly get cancer, might have to go smoke-free under the new extension of the smoking ban. Today, we got a call back from Alyonik Hrushow, the director of the Tobacco Free Project with th ... More >>

San Fran May Lose Some Really Good Places to Smoke

Mmmmm. Cigarettes.​Yes, second-hand smoke is a bummer. But the expansion of the smoking ban in San Francisco could extinguish some really great places to smoke in the city. Zeitgeist's outdoor patio, for one.The extended ban that supervisors passed yesterday includes restaurant patios, movie and A ... More >>

Motel Hell

It took years for the city to move against an SRO that was full of pests. So one resident took her case to court.

S.F clinics limiting STD tests to cut costs

Massive Amount of Lead Discovered in San Franciscan's Herbal Remedy

San Francisco Department of Public HealthLead is bad for people, and it's particularly bad for children, older folks, and anyone with kidney problems. So when a 60-year-old South Asian man walked into Dr.Vivek Bhalla's office with diabetes and kidney disease, and his lead levels tested t ... More >>

San Francisco Department of Public Health Contained Measles Outbreak, Possibly Saving Lives

Without a measles vaccine, your children's lives may be in danger.Just weeks ago, a San Francisco man who had traveled abroad brought back a deadly souvenier. He had spent some time in Europe with a friend who had been diagnosed with measles, and several days aft ... More >>

Giant, Anthropomorphic Penises All the Rage in San Francisco These Days

San Francisco Department of Public HealthThe Penismobile is a hybrid? We were sure it'd be a Jaguar XKEYou don't always say this about penises, but in San Francisco, they come in threes. First there was the walking, advice-dispensing dong featured in a locally produced health film/soap opera.Then th ... More >>

Walking Penis Highlights Local Doc's Wildly Effective STD Prevention Soap Opera

Coming soon to an STD clinic near you! The San Francisco Department of Public Health is proud to announce that Safe in the City -- a dramatic 23-minute STD prevention video developed by an SFDPH official -- has given the Centers for Disease Control a giant boner. This week, ... More >>

SF Weekly Letters: Web Extra

State of the Cart

Join us as we map the street food scene and find out why there aren't more vendors in this most food-involved and temperate of cities.

Trans Fat Conscious? Here's a New Badge to Look Out For

Lust for Life

Testing of a promising HIV vaccine requires volunteers who will couple for the cause

Super-Hyped Infection

Sensational headlines coupled with fearmongering public health reports have HIV-positive men in San Francisco running scared. It doesn't have to be that way.

Speed Kills. Again.

Dog Bites sniffs the Public Health Department's new Crystal Mess ad campaign

Diseaseville

Asthma, cancer, and other illnesses occur at higher-than-average rates in Hunters Point. Many residents blame the nearby Navy shipyard, one of the most contaminated ex-military bases in the nation.

Hey, Man, Got Any ID?

Why the Legislature shouldn't extend the city's medical marijuana identification system statewide

Hospital, Heal Thyself

The rebuilding of the Laguna Honda nursing home is already three years behind schedule and millions over budget -- and the final plans aren't even finished yet

Letters

Positive and Unprotected

More HIV-infected gay men are choosing unprotected sex with infected partners; questions about the dangers go begging

Mulch

Dog Bites

Petrelis the Pest

Michael Petrelis has entered the AIDS debate once again

To Live and Die (and Get Sick) in S.F.

What you should know about illin' in the city

Hep Help

Getting Hep

Hepatitis B is the Rodney Dangerfield of diseases: It just can't get respect. But it sure can kill you.