Are you afraid to talk about sex?

One of the recurrent themes at the summit is that those in the health care profession still are not talking to their patients enough about safe sex.

Dr. Michael A. Horberg, a research scientist at the Division of Research at Kaiser Permanente Northern California, told one side session that the ``biggest impediment of physicians testing patients (for HIV) is a certain discomfort about talking about sexual issues. This is true especially if patients are older than the doctor.’’

He then put it more bluntly: ``No one wants to talk about granny getting it on.’’