Comparison of Sex Partner Meeting Venues and Residences of Syphilis Cases in Baltimore

Background: Traditional syphilis control tools could be limited in high-risk groups in which the disease is concentrated. Novel programmatic methods such as tracking and targeting sex partner meeting venues could be valuable. Goal: The goals of this study were to determine if syphilis cases' sex partner meeting venues are geographically different than their residences and to determine the characteristics of identified meeting places. Results: For cases diagnosed from September 2001 to December 2002 with geocodable data, only 9% of meetings took place in the same census block group as residence, and mean and median distance from residence to meeting place was 1.73 and 1.03 miles. The most common meeting location type overall was a street or corner, but differed by risk behaviors. Conclusion: Baltimore syphilis cases in general met sex partners outside their immediate neighborhoods. Meeting locations could provide new targets for syphilis control interventions.