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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMonkeypox virus could become entrenched as new STD in the US
NEW YORK (AP) The spread of monkeypox in the U.S. could represent the dawn of a new sexually transmitted disease, though some health officials say the virus that causes pimple-like bumps might yet be contained before it gets firmly established.
Experts dont agree on the likely path of the disease, with some fearing that it is becoming so widespread that it is on the verge of becoming an entrenched STD like gonorrhea, herpes and HIV.
But no ones really sure, and some say testing and vaccines can still stop the outbreak from taking root.
So far, more than 2,800 U.S. cases have been reported as part of an international outbreak that emerged two months ago. About 99% have been men who reported having sex with other men, health officials say.
https://apnews.com/article/monkeypox-the-next-std-3266fd0ae451578c989605f430cd3897
Then the vaccine should be more readily available but there's the resistance by some against the COVID vaccine.
SheltieLover
(57,073 posts)An infant & a toddler.
This is not only spread by gay men.
Cdc has issued memo to hospitals advising staff to mask up to avoid infection with monkeypox while simpky blaming gay guys publicly.
TheBlackAdder
(28,211 posts)PhoenixRisingAgain
(25 posts).001%
Celerity
(43,495 posts)WhiskeyGrinder
(22,421 posts)contact, contact with objects that were in contact with a lesion, and vertical transmission.
Zeitghost
(3,868 posts)among other forms of transmission.
WhiskeyGrinder
(22,421 posts)make it a sexually transmitted disease, and calling it such is increasing the ignorance and stigma about it, as well as increasing the stigma and oppression of marginalized populations.
Zeitghost
(3,868 posts)It can be spread through contact with bodily fluids. Denying that it is spread through sexual contact is spreading dangerous disinformation. Those with higher risks need to be aware of how it is spread.
WhiskeyGrinder
(22,421 posts)Getting it because you touched an open sore while having sex does not make it a sexually transmitted disease, any more than getting chicken pox from someone panting on you during sex makes chicken pox a sexually transmitted disease.
Zeitghost
(3,868 posts)Says it is sexually transmitted...
I'm not sure why anyone would take such an odd, anti-science stance on this.
WhiskeyGrinder
(22,421 posts)*during* sexual contact. The CDC is framing things a certain way -- a decision it made in late May -- and the press is compounding the problem by focusing on the "gay sex" aspect, leading people who have only het sexual contact to think this isn't their problem, and to increased stigma against LGBTQ people as a whole. It's the very height of anti-science. Public health failed us during covid and we're watching it fail us now.
Zeitghost
(3,868 posts)By claiming a disease that is commonly transmitted by sexual contact is not a sexually transmitted disease. The term is literally a description of the method of transmission.
Not sure why you continue to spin what seems to be a very simple and clear medically and scientifically correct fact. As I said, people who are vulnerable to infection need to know the facts.
I'll stick with the CDC.
WhiskeyGrinder
(22,421 posts)lol good luck with that
Zeitghost
(3,868 posts)You'll be telling us airborne respiratory diseases aren't spread by breathing...
womanofthehills
(8,759 posts)STIs, like syphilis or gonorrhea, require sexual contact for transmission, often through bodily fluids. When it comes to spreading monkeypox, sex is incidental. You could have no penetrative sex whatsoever, says Gregg Gonsalves, a longtime HIV activist and scholar of epidemiology and health policy at Yales School of Public Health. No swapping of bodily fluids. And just because [you] were close together in bed, you get monkeypox.
Gonsalves compares monkeypox to a 2008 MRSA outbreak that first spread among men who had sex with men. The bacteria that causes MRSA is often transmitted very similarly [to monkeypox], through close physical contact, often in sexual situations, he says. But guess where it showed up next: In health clubs, because contaminated towels were able to transmit the virus. https://www.popsci.com/health/monkeypox-transmission-explained/
Zeitghost
(3,868 posts)But the idea that an STI/STD requires sexual contact, that is that it can only be transmitted by sex, is false. Despite the claims of popsci.com
PhoenixRisingAgain
(25 posts)I understand that right now the emphasis is on making sure that "people-who-have-penises-and-also-have-sex-with-people-who-have-penises" don't get offended. I feel as though the emphasis SHOULD be on putting out information that will lead to the steepest decline possible in the number of people propagating this disease, therefore yes, since it SURE seems to spread well between "people-who-have-penises-and-also-have-sex-with-people-who-have-penises" who've had sex with someone who has monkeypox I feel like it's okay to say this disease is for the most part a disease that is spread by "sexual contact between people-who-have-penises-and-also-have-sex-with-people-who-have-penises" with a caveat that it can also be spread by other types of contact.
Ex Lurker
(3,816 posts)your sarcastic use of gender inclusive terms in duly noted.
Celerity
(43,495 posts)NickB79
(19,258 posts)As evidenced by over a dozen infected children in the US and Europe so far.
Covid is also easily transmissible during sex.
https://www.umms.org/coronavirus/what-to-know/managing-medical-conditions/coronavirus-risk/sex
COVID is not called an STD.
It's only a matter of time before monkeypox reaches critical mass, spreads out of the gay community it got a foothold in, and spreads widely in heterosexual and child populations through non-sexual contact.
This is disturbingly similar to how HIV was called a "gay disease", until it spread widely in the heterosexual community.
Zeitghost
(3,868 posts)You can get HIV from sharing dirty needles, does that mean it's not an STD?
Nevilledog
(51,196 posts)WhiskeyGrinder
(22,421 posts)Nevilledog
(51,196 posts)Link to tweet
dr caitlin green (offense archaeologist)
@caitlinmoriah
·
Follow
its been pointed out that when school comes back and a bunch of kids get monkeypox, there will be a wave of false reports and violence against daycare workers and teachers
Marjorie Taylor Greene: if monkeypox is a sexually transmitted disease, why are kids getting it?
8:28 AM · Jul 24, 2022
Read the full conversation on Twitter
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WhiskeyGrinder
(22,421 posts)Zeitghost
(3,868 posts)n/t
TheBlackAdder
(28,211 posts)William769
(55,147 posts)roamer65
(36,747 posts)Both can be spread by non-sexual contact and is how they have mainly spread in the past.
Garbage journalism by AP.
Response to Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin (Original post)
roamer65 This message was self-deleted by its author.
PhoenixRisingAgain
(25 posts)Do we oppose identifying MP as a sexually transmitted disease due to the possibility it may further marginalize people who have penises who have sex with other people who have penises? Because as a person with a penis who has sex with people with penises I don't need to be considered in that way. To me identifying it as an STD just puts people on alert when they're going to have sex with someone that there's DANGER!, a new STD to consider. I appreciate the consideration but by and large the American public is savvy enough to figure out that this is a disease that is spread mostly through contact and that is very easily spread by the types of contact experienced by people having sex, so it's kinda like an STD in that sense but that it can also be spread through non-sexual contact. I don't have any problem with people saying that this is a sexually transmitted disease. Sex is a great way to spread monkey pox but you can get it other non-sexual ways too, I believe we're all sophisticated enough to handle that.
womanofthehills
(8,759 posts)Because they are not sexual, they dont have to worry about catching it. Sounds like they did the same thing with MERSA.
PhoenixRisingAgain
(25 posts)If we were trying to communicate with people who're less sophisticated, say maybe young children or people from a less literate society I could see the concern as being valid. We are talking about the American public though, who're pretty literate and able to grasp abstract concepts and who just went through a 2 year crash course in public health. I think we all get that it's a disease that is spread through contact and that there's quite a bit of contact in sex, whatever kind of sex that is. I don't have any other knowledge on this than what has already been stated, that being that there've been quite a few cases in the US and that all but two are documented to have been in people with penises who have sex with people with penises, placing people who have penises and have sex with people who have penises (that's a lot to type, can we just say gay men please?) in pretty much the only high risk category that I can personally identify. As a person with a penis who (again, the verbiage is exhausting!) has sex with people who have penises I can assure you that I don't see this MP being described as an STD that's prevalent in the (ugh!) "people with penises who have sex with people with penises" community as an attempt to stigmatize me. I see it as a useful way to convey information in a realistic way.
Honestly, good faith here, not trying to defend your position or anything, do you believe that there are people out there stopping themselves just prior to a sexual encounter and saying, "WHOA, this could be dangerous, is there anything I need to consider? NAH, monkeypox is a disease spread through contact with sweaty bodies and I'm not about to have contact with any sweaty bodies, I'm just going to have sex, and there's rarely any contact between sweaty bodies during a sexual encounter, I'll be fine, no need to exercise additional caution"?
Texasgal
(17,047 posts)That's why.
Just A Box Of Rain
(5,104 posts)And I saw a lot of misplaced outrage over the clear likelihood that this "mystery illness" might be spreading through sexual activity between men.
Response to Texasgal (Reply #35)
William769 This message was self-deleted by its author.
ismnotwasm
(42,006 posts)Its not an STD
Celerity
(43,495 posts)https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2022/07/us-messaging-on-monkeypox-is-deeply-flawed/670573/
https://archive.ph/7kKZc
Risk Assessment
In the parts of the world where monkeypox is newly spreading, like the United States and Europe, the people currently most at risk of getting the disease are gay and bisexual men. A recent update from the World Health Organization noted that cases in newly afflicted countries have mainly been among men who have had recent sexual contact with a new or multiple male partners. In Europe, just 0.2 percent of the men who have gotten the disease identify as heterosexual. Reports from the center of the U.S. outbreakNew York Cityshow that the number of monkeypox cases has nearly tripled in the last week, nearly all of them among men who have sex with men. The infectious-disease and LGBTQ-health journalist Benjamin Ryan notes that though the U.S. is, frustratingly, not collecting demographic details on monkeypox patients, Britain is, and the numbers there are clear: Half of men screened for monkeypox tested positive; women, by contrast, tested positive only 0.6 percent of the time.
And yet, despite this barrage of data, an American following the public-health messaging on monkeypox might come away with the idea that all populations are similarly at risk of contracting the disease. U.S. officials are taking action to specifically protect men who have sex with other men (MSM) from monkeypoximportantly, supplies of the vaccine have largely been reserved for that community. And yet, many public-health officialsand some media outletshave scrambled to combat the idea that monkeypox is a gay disease. (Both the CDC and WHO websites bury mentions of MSM risk.) These authorities, Ryan has argued, have spread a message so egregiously misleading it amounts to misinformation. That message? Anyone can get monkeypox.
This is not the first time American public-health officials have pushed a confusing communications strategy about the transmissibility of a dangerous virus. Smithsonian magazine has documented how some AIDS organizations criticized the federal government for its everyone is at risk message in the late 1980s and early 90s. These organizations saw the campaign as diverting money and attention away from the communities that needed it the most and instead focusing resources on much lower-risk populations. Yesterday, The New York Times reported on a battle within New York Citys health department. The story revealed a widespread discomfort within the agency with acknowledging and highlighting the primary route of monkeypox transmission: sex between men:
The Health Departments guidance to the public has often highlighted nonsexual routes of potential transmission, such as hugging or contact with bedding. While those are certainly possible routes of transmission, the result Dr. Weiss [a doctor at the department] said was to make people overly concerned about casual physical contact and not sufficiently aware that most monkeypox infections in New York appeared to be transmitted through sex.
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Gay men deserve the unvarnished truth about monkeypox
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/18/monkeypox-gay-men-deserve-unvarnished-truth/
https://archive.ph/JQOcc
Anyone can get monkeypox. Countless public health experts have uttered statements such as this in the past two months. Members of the media and politicians have parroted the message ad nauseam without stopping to dissect what it implies or obscures. This broad-strokes maxim that everyone on Earth is susceptible to this troubling viral infection might be factual on its surface. But it is so egregiously misleading it amounts to misinformation.
Those who make such statements dont intend harm. On the contrary, leaders at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization and elsewhere repeat them because they commendably want to combat the societal stigma faced by gay and bisexual men, who have been disproportionately impacted by monkeypox. They know that stigma harms public health, including by discouraging infectious-disease testing. And they dont want the rest of the public to be complacent in the face of a potential new pandemic.
But as these public health experts know well, epidemiology is less concerned with whether someone could contract an infection; instead, the much more vital questions focus on which groups of people are most likely to be exposed to a pathogen, to contract it and why. In public health statistics, this is the study of relative risk. By reducing monkeypox risk to a simplistic binary equation, public health leaders are prioritizing fighting stigma over their duty to directly inform the public about the true contours and drivers of this global outbreak. In particular, they are failing to properly convey the seriousness of this burgeoning crisis to gay and bisexual men.
Here is what we can discern from data collected about monkeypox so far: This viral outbreak isnt just mostly occurring among men who have sex with men. The confirmed cases, at least to date, have consistently almost entirely occurred among this demographic, which accounts for 96 percent or more of diagnoses where data are available. Per capita, the few monkeypox cases in women and children remain minuscule compared with the rate among gay and bisexual men. Of course, substantial transmission could always occur among such other groups. But researchers at the WHO and elsewhere have speculated that the monkeypox reproduction rate will likely remain significantly lower in such demographics meaning the virus will more likely hit transmission dead ends among them than among gay and bisexual men.
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Monkeypox primarily transmitted through sexual activity, says new study
A new study has shown 95% of monkeypox cases have been transmitted through sexual activity. US health officials are concerned that it could become an entrenched STD, like gonorrhea, herpes or HIV.
https://www.dw.com/en/monkeypox-primarily-transmitted-through-sexual-activity-says-new-study/a-62560540
New research published by the New England Journal of Medicine suggests that 95% percent of monkeypox cases have been transmitted through sexual activity. The research was led by scientists at Queen Mary University of London. It looked at 528 confirmed infections in 16 countries between April 27 and June 24, 2022.
According to the study, 98% of infected people were gay or bisexual men, and 41% had HIV. The median age was 38. Their median number of sex partners in the prior three months was five, and around a third were known to have visited sex-on-site venues such as sex parties or saunas within the previous month.
The study also showed monkeypox patients have been showing symptoms previously unrelated to the virus, such as single genital lesions and sores on the mouth or anus. Many of these are similar to symptoms of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and could lead to misdiagnosis, said researchers.
"It is important to stress that monkeypox is not a sexually transmitted infection in the traditional sense it can be acquired through any kind of close physical contact. However, our work suggests that most transmissions so far have been related to sexual activity mainly, but not exclusively, among men who have sex with men," said first author John Thornhill, in a statement.
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Monkeypox Virus Infection in Humans across 16 Countries AprilJune 2022
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2207323
BACKGROUND
Before April 2022, monkeypox virus infection in humans was seldom reported outside African regions where it is endemic. Currently, cases are occurring worldwide. Transmission, risk factors, clinical presentation, and outcomes of infection are poorly defined.
METHODS
We formed an international collaborative group of clinicians who contributed to an international case series to describe the presentation, clinical course, and outcomes of polymerase-chain-reactionconfirmed monkeypox virus infections.
RESULTS
We report 528 infections diagnosed between April 27 and June 24, 2022, at 43 sites in 16 countries. Overall, 98% of the persons with infection were gay or bisexual men, 75% were White, and 41% had human immunodeficiency virus infection; the median age was 38 years. Transmission was suspected to have occurred through sexual activity in 95% of the persons with infection. In this case series, 95% of the persons presented with a rash (with 64% having having < 10 lesions), 73% had anogenital lesions, and 41% had mucosal lesions (with 54 having a single genital lesion). Common systemic features preceding the rash included fever (62%), lethargy (41%), myalgia (31%), and headache (27%); lymphadenopathy was also common (reported in 56%). Concomitant sexually transmitted infections were reported in 109 of 377 persons (29%) who were tested. Among the 23 persons with a clear exposure history, the median incubation period was 7 days (range, 3 to 20). Monkeypox virus DNA was detected in 29 of the 32 persons in whom seminal fluid was analyzed. Antiviral treatment was given to 5% of the persons overall, and 70 (13%) were hospitalized; the reasons for hospitalization were pain management, mostly for severe anorectal pain (21 persons); soft-tissue superinfection (18); pharyngitis limiting oral intake (5); eye lesions (2); acute kidney injury (2); myocarditis (2); and infection-control purposes (13). No deaths were reported.
CONCLUSIONS
In this case series, monkeypox manifested with a variety of dermatologic and systemic clinical findings. The simultaneous identification of cases outside areas where monkeypox has traditionally been endemic highlights the need for rapid identification and diagnosis of cases to contain further community spread.
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