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John Potterat???Friend, Colleague, Runner, and Special Recognition Award Winner

2001; Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; Volume: 28; Issue: 12 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1097/00007435-200112000-00003

1537-4521

BILL DARROW, Devon Brewer, Stuart Brody, John W. Muth, STEVE MUTH, ET AL DON WOODHOUSE,

Vaccine Coverage and Hesitancy

Seems like yesterday, but it was long ago. Bob Seger VENEREAL DISEASE (VD) control was made possible almost 100 years ago when microbiologists working at the Koch Institute in Berlin identified the etiologic agent, a complement-fixation screening test, and a treatment for syphilis. Ever since, social and behavioral scientists have been trying to catch up. Enough was thought to be known in the 1960s to encourage an attempt to eradicate syphilis in the United States, but as we all know, that attempt failed, in part because we did not know enough about sociosexual environments and how Treponema pallidum disseminates in human populations. The syphilis eradication effort was brought to an abrupt end in 1972 when news broke about a 40-year-old mortality study of untreated syphilis in 400 African-American men in Tuskegee, Alabama. Refugees from the national program for syphilis eradication quickly became interested in other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). A Venereal Disease Control Strategic Planning System (VDCSPS) was established under the guidance of Rafe Henderson, Director, and Paul Wiesner, Chief, Operational Research Section, VD Branch, Communicable Disease Center, Atlanta, Georgia. Jim Curran was assigned to stimulate community-based studies in Ohio; Rich Rothenberg was recruited for a similar position in Colorado. Coincidentally with the creation of VDCSPS, John Potterat moved from sunny southern California to Colorado Springs, Colorado, with his new bride, Susan, and stepson, Tim, to start a new life and new career as Director of the STD Program for the El Paso County Department of Health and Environment. He had been a Public Health Service (PHS) 685 series Public Health Advisor for 4 years in Los Angeles after serving in Vietnam and dropping out of graduate school at UCLA–just like the Lizard King, Jim Morrison, of the Doors. Soon he noted an apparent link between the sexual behaviors of young men serving in military installations at the outskirts of town and the occurrence of gonorrhea and other STDs in the civilian population of Colorado Springs. He shared his insights with Rich Rothenberg, and they called Bill Darrow and other colleagues with offers to collaborate. Thus began a series of mutually rewarding partnerships that has endured and expanded for over 25 years. John’s greatest contributions to our understanding of how STDs disseminate through sociosexual networks have grown out of his unquenchable curiosity and compassion for those we in Public Health choose to serve. Professional visits to Colorado Springs typically began with morning conversations with staff and patients at the STD clinic, afternoon interviews with clients in low-rent apartments and motels, and late evening talks with pimps and other patrons at New Joe’s Bar, or with “working women” on the stroll along South Nevada Avenue. His 53-authored research reports in biomedical journals address critical issues of STD prevention in prepubertal children, homeless women, homosexual men, prostitutes, and teen-gang and motorcycle-club members. As the day of the workstation epidemiologist arrived, John remained loyal to his roots as an “amateur ethnographer” (as he likes to call himself) and epidemiologist of the sole-leather variety (as we know him to be). He is a blue-collar worker in a white-collar world. He is a Bob Seger in a land of Pat Boones—older now, but still running, running against the wind—and we love him for what he has done for all of us, and for who he is. Congratulations, John, you deserve the ASTDA Special Recognition Award.