The myth of exceptionalism: The history of venereal disease reporting in the twentieth century

The adoption of name-based reporting for HIV infection in the late 1990s was widely viewed as an end to the "exceptionalism" that had supposedly set HIV policy apart from the public health approaches used for other sexually transmitted diseases. But the history syphilis and gonorrhea control in the United States reveals that health officials have always treated these conditions differently from other infectious diseases. The history of venereal disease control reveals the extent to which social, political, and ethical concerns have shaped public health surveillance.