{"id":25580,"date":"2025-04-08T17:15:46","date_gmt":"2025-04-08T17:15:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=25580"},"modified":"2025-04-08T17:24:37","modified_gmt":"2025-04-08T17:24:37","slug":"king-k-holmes-a-pioneer-in-std-research-dies-at-87","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=25580","title":{"rendered":"King K. Holmes, a Pioneer in STD Research, Dies at 87"},"content":{"rendered":"
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He took a down-to-earth approach to sexually transmitted infections, a subject no one wanted to discuss, arriving at novel methods of treatment and prevention.<\/p>\n

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King K. Holmes, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Washington who almost single-handedly legitimized the study of sexually transmitted infections, turning a neglected, stigmatized subject into a major field of medical research, died on March 9 at his home in Seattle. He was 87.<\/p>\n

The cause was kidney disease, his family said.<\/p>\n

Once called<\/a> \u201cMr. STD\u201d by a colleague, Dr. Holmes founded some of the first clinics that specialized in treating sexually transmitted infections; pioneered the use of single-dose medicines to prevent illness after intimate encounters; and published the field\u2019s definitive textbook<\/a>, often referred to simply as \u201cHolmes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe brought sexually transmitted diseases out of the closet,\u201d Judith Wasserheit<\/a>, his colleague at the University of Washington, told<\/a> The Seattle Times in 2013. \u201cKing did pivotal research on almost every aspect, every single STD, every diagnostic or treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Holmes began studying sexually transmitted diseases in the 1960s, the era of sex, drugs and rock \u2019n\u2019 roll, which coincided with a surge of rashes and discharge in certain anatomical areas that patients and physicians were equally squeamish about discussing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThis was not a well-developed specialty or an area of study in infectious disease,\u201d Peter Piot, a global health expert who led an AIDS-prevention program<\/a> for the United Nations, said in an interview. \u201cThere was no funding for it. Nobody liked talking about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Holmes publicly challenged the medical community to do better. In interviews, he called the lack of interest in the study of sexually transmitted diseases a \u201cconspiracy of silence\u201d that was \u201cignorant,\u201d \u201cappalling\u201d and \u201ca disgrace.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into<\/a>\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe<\/a>\u00a0for all of The Times.<\/p>\n

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He took a down-to-earth approach to sexually transmitted infections, a subject no one wanted to discuss, arriving at novel methods of treatment and prevention.King K. Holmes, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Washington who almost single-handedly legitimized the study of sexually transmitted infections, turning a neglected, stigmatized subject into a major field of medical research, died on March 9 at his home in Seattle. He was 87.The cause was kidney disease, his family said.Once called \u201cMr. STD\u201d by a colleague, Dr. Holmes founded some of the first clinics that specialized in treating sexually transmitted infections; pioneered the use of single-dose medicines to prevent illness after intimate encounters; and published the field\u2019s definitive textbook, often referred to simply as \u201cHolmes.\u201d\u201cHe brought sexually transmitted diseases out of the closet,\u201d Judith Wasserheit, his colleague at the University of Washington, told The Seattle Times in 2013. \u201cKing did pivotal research on almost every aspect, every single STD, every diagnostic or treatment.\u201dDr. Holmes began studying sexually transmitted diseases in the 1960s, the era of sex, drugs and rock \u2019n\u2019 roll, which coincided with a surge of rashes and discharge in certain anatomical areas that patients and physicians were equally squeamish about discussing.\u201cThis was not a well-developed specialty or an area of study in infectious disease,\u201d Peter Piot, a global health expert who led an AIDS-prevention program for the United Nations, said in an interview. \u201cThere was no funding for it. Nobody liked talking about it.\u201dDr. Holmes publicly challenged the medical community to do better. In interviews, he called the lack of interest in the study of sexually transmitted diseases a \u201cconspiracy of silence\u201d that was \u201cignorant,\u201d \u201cappalling\u201d and \u201ca disgrace.\u201dWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25582,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25580"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25580\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25583,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25580\/revisions\/25583"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}