Drug-resistant staph found to be passed in gay sex - Politics Forum.org | PoFo

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#1426240
By Amanda Beck

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A drug-resistant strain of potentially deadly bacteria has moved beyond the borders of U.S. hospitals and is being transmitted among gay men during sex, researchers said on Monday.

They said methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, is beginning to appear outside hospitals in San Francisco, Boston, New York and Los Angeles.

Sexually active gay men in San Francisco are 13 times more likely to be infected than their heterosexual neighbors, the researchers reported in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

"Once this reaches the general population, it will be truly unstoppable," said Binh Diep, a researcher at the University of California, San Francisco who led the study. "That's why we're trying to spread the message of prevention."

According to chemical analyses, bacteria are spreading among the gay communities of San Francisco and Boston, the researchers said.

"We think that it's spread through sexual activity," Diep said.

This superbug can cause life-threatening and disfiguring infections and can often only be treated with expensive, intravenous antibiotics.

It killed about 19,000 Americans in 2005, most of them in hospitals, according to a report published in October in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

About 30 percent of all people carry ordinary staph chronically. It can be passed by touching other people or by depositing the bacteria on surfaces or objects.

The bacteria can cause deep-tissue infections if they enter the body through a wound in the skin.

Of those people who carry staph, most carry it in their noses but community-based MRSA also can live in and around the anus and is passed between sexual partners.

Incidence of MRSA is rising along with the resurgence of syphilis, rectal gonorrhea, and new HIV infections partly because of changes in beliefs about the severity of HIV and an increase in risky behaviors, such as illicit drug use and having sex that abrades the skin, Diep's team wrote.

"Your likelihood of contracting each of these diseases increases with the number of sexual partners that you have," Diep said. "The same can probably be said for MRSA."

Staph infections often look like raised red dots on the skin. Left untreated, the areas can swell and fill with pus.

The best way to avoid infection is by washing the hands or genitals with soap and water, Diep said.
http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN1337175820080114?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews&rpc=22&sp=true

Just what we need another terrible problem to deal with.
User avatar
By QatzelOk
#1426246
The best way to avoid infection is by washing the hands or genitals with soap and water, Diep said.

I guess this means we all have to wash our hands and genitals with soap and water.

And don't forget to see your doctor if you ever get something suspicious looking. It's free in most countries to visit a doctor.
User avatar
By Praetor
#1426254
What should we do? Should we start massive homosexual death camps in the Alaskan tundra?

Be afraid.

Be very afraid.
User avatar
By Verv
#1426265
I think a lot of anal sex and promiscuity can somehow relate to this and perhaps the heightened numbers amongst gays (being 13 times more likely) goes back to studies which have been done everywhere from China to Europe indicating the heightened number of sex partners that homosexuals have.

Of course, the only coherent liberal response when faced with this is accuse us of desiring an extreme response with a hyperbole like death camps. That's not the case, dudes & dudettes.
User avatar
By Donna
#1426333
If it gets into the straight population, don't blame gays, blame the bisexuals.

Of course, the only coherent liberal response when faced with this is accuse us of desiring an extreme response with a hyperbole like death camps. That's not the case, dudes & dudettes.


Well, that sounds like a liberal thing to do for one thing.
User avatar
By Noelnada
#1426337
It killed about 19,000 Americans in 2005, most of them in hospitals, according to a report published in October in the Journal of the American Medical Association.


Yes but what about the number of Americans killed in 2007 ? Are the numbers in progression ? Can we do anything to help spread the disease ? Should we also wash our hands and penis in Europe ?
User avatar
By Praetor
#1426340
Of course, the only coherent liberal response when faced with this is accuse us of desiring an extreme response with a hyperbole like death camps. That's not the case, dudes & dudettes.

Well, the only coherent conservative response to an article like this is to use it as an excuse to get the population to fear gays.

They’ve done it before.
User avatar
By W01f
#1426342
Should we also wash our hands and penis in Europe ?


:lol:

I don't see anything too surprising here. It's POO! Disease filled, dirty, disgusting POO! You can't stick your dick, or even your tongue in such dirty places without taking proper sanitary measures and expect not to get sick. I thought we already learned the lessons about unsafe, unsanitary homosexual sex (and to just to shut all you politically-correct people up, hetrosexual sex as well) back 80s..
User avatar
By Nets
#1426378
Wo1f is correct. What happened to the Gay community in the 1980s was a tragedy, but much of it can be blamed on both promiscuity amongst certain elements of that community who had multiple sexual partners per night unprotected in the bathhouses as well as political inaction by the Reagan administration.

An excellent read on the subject is And the Band Played On, I highly recommend it.
User avatar
By Verv
#1426383
It was a good movie, Nets Fan, but I do not see how the administration is to blame for anything. Perhaps awareness would have been better but diseases are everywhere and have never gone away.

Reagan was not seducing gay men and giving them AIDS, so why is he responsible?
User avatar
By Nets
#1426389
I think promotion of public health is a government function, you may not. And I'm no talking about the movie (which was decent) but the book.

Because of the Reagan Administration and the FDA, horrible things happened. I think AIDS was seen as a Gay/Caribbean/Black disease, and Reagan didn't mention the disease once in his speeches until it was too late. The Feds and CDC knew what was happening, they knew there was an epidemic and did nothing. It could have been contained at that point.

Even if you don't care about the Gays, look at how many Hemophiliacs got AIDS from blood transfusions. The FDA knew it was unsafe and did nothing.
User avatar
By Grunch
#1426402
Wo1f is correct. What happened to the Gay community in the 1980s was a tragedy, but much of it can be blamed on both promiscuity amongst certain elements of that community who had multiple sexual partners per night unprotected in the bathhouses as well as political inaction by the Reagan administration.

All those millions gay Africans deserve it, don't they. :roll:
User avatar
By Nets
#1426421
Grunch did you even read what I wrote?? :roll:

I mentioned nothing of Africa. I was only addressing the epidemic in the United States, not Africa. Jesus. Obiously, no one deserves AIDS.

This doesn't mean people are responsibility free for their situation. If you have sex several times a night without protection, expect AIDS.
User avatar
By Donna
#1426565
Getting HIV is hot for some gay men, so good luck with that.
User avatar
By Dr House
#1426569
And don't forget to see your doctor if you ever get something suspicious looking. It's free in most countries to visit a doctor.


Free, of course, meaning "paid for by someone other than the user through taxes". Of course, all forms of insurance are paid by third parties, so single-payer insurance systems are not a bad idea... it's just stupid calling them free.
User avatar
By W01f
#1426585
Free, of course, meaning "paid for by someone other than the user through taxes". Of course, all forms of insurance are paid by third parties, so single-payer insurance systems are not a bad idea... it's just stupid calling them free.


The point is that you don't have to pay extra money out of your pocket just to check out something suspicious, so there's no downside in playing it safe and going to a doctor. Simplicity trumps semantics when it comes to getting important points across through mass media.
By Spin
#1426863
Reagan was not seducing gay men and giving them AIDS, so why is he responsible?


A Republican who doesn't have sex with men? Outrageous.

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