Health & Science.

DISEASE

Wart worries

Avoiding genital-to-genital contact may not be enough to stop the spread of genital warts, according to a recent report in the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections. In the October issue British researchers report in a preliminary study that human papillomavirus, which causes genital warts, is found not only on the genitals of men and women with warts but can also be found on, and transmitted from, their fingertips as well. Gloves, anyone?--Sue Rochman

SAFE SEX

Women and HIV 

A study that originally concerned women who are sexually active with men and who are at high risk for sexually transmitted diseases became a reconsideration of the risks faced by all women when University of Washington researchers learned that 38% of the women had also had sex with women. As reported in the December American Journal of Public Health, bisexual women are more likely than the heterosexual women to take part in behaviors that put them at risk for HIV and other STDs. "To educate women about their risks, we first have to ask the right questions," says researcher Virginia Gonzales. "All too often researchers and physicians make assumptions about women's sexual behavior."--S.R.

SMOKING

Tobacco road

The Marlboro man must exert more power over gay men than the surgeon general does. Researchers from the University of California, San Francisco, report that nearly haft of all gay men smoke--nearly twice the rate of the total U.S. male population. "Current tobacco prevention efforts designed for men in general are failing gay men," said Ron Stall, lead author of the study, published in the December American Journal of Public Health.--S.R.