San Francisco City Clinic

Coordinates: 37°46′33.55″N 122°24′25.4″W / 37.7759861°N 122.407056°W / 37.7759861; -122.407056

San Francisco City Clinic

SF City Clinic at night.
Geography
Location San Francisco, San Francisco, California, United States
Organization
Care system STD testing, treatment, counseling, research, prevention, education, outreach
History
Founded 1933
Links
Website SFCityClinic.org
Lists Hospitals in California

San Francisco City Clinic also known as SF City Clinic or usually as City Clinic is a rather unusual municipal public sexual health clinic specializing in sexually transmitted infections testing and sexually transmitted disease treatment, in addition to advocacy work and medical research. The center is located in the South of Market or "SoMa" district on the north-east side of San Francisco, California along San Francisco Bay.[1]

Overview

History

San Francisco City Clinic is run by the City and County of San Francisco's Department of Public Health. The health center opened and began serving the sexually active members of San Francisco's communities in 1933.[1] Its precursor was the Municipal Clinic of San Francisco opened in 1911 to treat prostitutes suffering from the "Red Plague".[2] The clinic is located on 7th Street, at number 356, its current location where it has operated continuously since the health center's inception. The center has been researching the human immunodeficiency virus since the 1970s.[3] City Clinic has done extensive HIV research and how it affects the gay community in San Francisco including tracking the epidemic by zip codes and neighborhoods and mapping the severity of infections.[3][4] In the 2000s craigslist.org added a link the clinic's website as a disclaimer on the page preceding the men seeking men section of the page.[5] Since its opening the most common diseases treated were Gonorrhea, Syphilis, and Chlamydia and they continue to be so.[2] Most of the clientele are teenages, people in their 20s, and gays and lesbians.[2]

Operations

The clinic offers low cost sexually transmitted disease testing and treatment in addition to birth control to anyone over the age of 12.[1] It runs out of an old firehouse on 7th Street.[2] The services are provided in English, Spanish, Mandarin and Cantonese Chinese, Tagalog, and Russian.[1] Although there is a nominal US$10 flat rate charge no one is refused for lack of funds nor are they invoiced later.[1][6][7] The health center also offers free counseling on genital, reproductive, STD, and prevention issues along with free condoms and lubricant.[1] On average, the clinic sees over 100 patients daily. Many patients are San Francisco residents, but the clinic also serves patients from outside the city. The clinic also does outreach efforts with sex workers. City Clinic offers Emergency Post-Exposure Prophylaxis treatments for those that have recently come into contact with HIV. Rape reception services are also available.

Research

The center coordinates with various medical research studies particularly those regarding HIV and gay, bisexual, and men who have sex with men communities.[8] Starting in the year 2002 and continuing into 2003, the clinic as part of a national study helped to discover a large increase in gonorrhea and syphilis cases amongst gay and bisexual men that was attributed to the perception that HIV treatments had greatly improved making the condition less life-threatening.[9] San Francisco City Clinic also does extensive outreach in the predominantly African-American Bayview-Hunters Point district because of the large incidence of new HIV cases in that community. The clinic followed various cohorts from the late 1970s to the late 1980s and participated in research to determine the causalities of HIV/AIDS in addition to maintain empirical data of the men studied.[10]

Accessibility

The clinic is open Monday through Friday with varying hours of operation and services offered, no appointment is necessary nor available as this is a drop in clinic.[11] Hours are eight in the morning until four in the afternoon Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and opening at one in the afternoon Tuesdays and Thursdays closing at six on the former and four on the latter.[11] Patrons may park at metered parking along 7th street and surrounding roads.[12] The area can be accessed by major arterials VanNess, Market, and Third Street in addition to Highway 101 and Interstate 80.[12] Visitors may also use public transportation to get to San Francisco City Clinic with nearly a dozen bus lines within a few blocks provided by the San Francisco Municipal Railway or by light rail and BART from the nearby Civic Center/United Nations Plaza station.[12] Those from outside the city may access the clinic from nearby Golden Gate Transit, AC Transit and SamTrans service.[12]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 About Us, San Francisco City Clinic website. 2010. Accessed 12-07-2010
  2. 1 2 3 4 City Clinic hasn't lost that lovin' feelin' at 100. San Francisco Chronicle. Written and accessed 24-04-2011.
  3. 1 2 The Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome in a Cohort of Homosexual Men A Six-Year Follow-up Study, Jaffe et al. Annals of Internal Medicine. August 1, 1985 vol. 103 no. 2 210-214. Accessed 07-12-2010.
  4. ↑ The San Francisco Men's Health Study: III. Reduction in human immunodeficiency virus transmission among homosexual/bisexual men, 1982-86., Winklestein et al. American Journal of Public Health. Vol. 77. Issue 6. P 685-689. Accessed 07-12-2010
  5. ↑ The Hottest Spot Online, by Ann Rostow, The Advocate. Aug 16, 2005.
  6. ↑ Visit Process, City Clinic website. 2010. Accessed 07-12-2010.
  7. ↑ Poole, Matthew Richard (2009), Frommer's San Francisco Free & Dirt Cheap, Frommer's, p. 190, ISBN 978-0-470-39905-7
  8. ↑ High-risk sexual behavior and knowledge of HIV antibody status in the San Francisco City Clinic Cohort, Doll et al. Health Psychology. Volume 9. Issue 3. 1990. Pages 253-265. Accessed 07-12-2010
  9. ↑ Risk Factors for Early Syphilis Among Gay and Bisexual Men Seen in an STD Clinic: San Francisco, 2002-2003, Wong et al. Sexually Transmitted Diseases: July 2005. Volume 32. Issue 7. pp 458-463. Accessed 07-12-2010
  10. ↑ Safe sex stops the spread of the virus, New Scientist. 07-01-1988. Accessed 08-12-2010.
  11. 1 2 Drop In Hours, SF City Clinic website. 2010. Accessed 08-12-2010.
  12. 1 2 3 4 San Francisco Municipal Railway service map, 2009. Accessed 07-12-2010.
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