After Linking New Strain of Staph to Gay Men, University Scrambles to Clarify

[rodeodance]

Source: nytimes


January 20, 2008
After Linking New Strain of Staph to Gay Men, University Scrambles to Clarify
By JESSE McKINLEY

SAN FRANCISCO — In a matter of days, it jumped from a routine press release to a medical controversy.

On Monday, a team of researchers led by doctors from the University of California at San Francisco announced that gay men were “many times more likely than others” to acquire a new strain of drug-resistant staphylococcus, a nasty, fast-spreading and potential lethal bacteria known as MRSA USA300. And sure enough, the study, published online in the Annals of Internal Medicine, was quickly picked up by reporters round the world and across the Internet, including a London tabloid which dubbed the disease “the new H.I.V.”

But for gay men in the Castro neighborhood here, which was an early epicenter for the AIDS epidemic and a current hot spot for MRSA, the report also seemed to cast an unfair, and all too familiar, stigma on their sexuality.

“The way they keep targeting gays as if gays alone are responsible for it, its like H.I.V./AIDS all over again,” said Colin Thurlow, 60, who is gay and lives in San Francisco. “And we’re sick and tired of it.”.....

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/20/us/20castro.html?_r=1&th=&oref=slogin&emc=th&pagewanted=print

[TwilightGardener]

1. Jesus, it's a BACTERIUM. High-school wrestlers can get it, can't they?

ANYBODY can get it--it's not an STD, it's a skin-contact issue. I can understand warning gay men that they are statistically at increased risk, but this is WAY overblown as a "gay" problem.

[humbled_opinion]

2. I guess they are pushing the Homophobic agenda?

I mean gotta steer clear of the queer right?

Such hate in our country..:grr:

[debbierlus]

3. Anal sex is just an easier vehicle for transimitting certain viruses

And, bacteria.

It is NOT a gay issue. There are PLENTY of straight people who engage in this type of sex. People need to be extra careful in protecting themselves if they engage in 'backdoor' sex since the area is suspectible to tiny tears, ruptures, or lesions.

It is really a sad commentary on this society that it casts moral judgements on people, if they get sick.

This will also be used to cast judgement on those who are not monogamous, or even those in long term relationships who are not married. Pathetic. Public health issue as a weapon against the sick.

[TomClash]

4. The notion that MRSA is a "gay" disease is ridiculous

Anyone can get this in a hospital - where many bacterial infections occur.

[TwilightGardener]

5. Exactly--I was a nurse, and it has been a huge infection-control issue

for some time now. There have also been recent outbreaks among school-age athletes, from body contact and using contaminated equipment and mats.

[BR_Parkway]

6. Plus the way the hatred pushes gay men to associate with each other

rather than the "outside world" sometimes - any highly transmittable disease is going to spread most quickly to those who are around someone who has it.

If it had broken out in a Baptist church here in NC, would we instantly jump on it and claim that it was religious HIV?

[rodeodance]

7. "not sexually transmitted or limited to a certain type of person"--see this.

But Mr. Figurado said he was less concerned about antigay rhetoric. “It’s not just gay people that get it,” he said. “You can get it anywhere.”

Indeed, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, which helped finance the study, affirmed on Wednesday that the disease was not sexually transmitted or limited to a certain type of person. It is transmitted through skin-to-skin contact, the agency said in a statement, and is widespread in hospitals and among hospital workers.

“These infections occur in men, women, adults, children and persons of all races and sexual orientations,” the statement read, adding that while the particular strain identified in the report had been found in gay men, it had also been found in people who were not gay.

[Gman]

8. I've gotten MRSA infections three times in the last 6 months

no doubt from not wiping down equipment at the gym then not washing my hands well when I got home.

I've learned that MRSA lives in the nostrils. Touch or handle something that has MRSA, then touch your nose and you're likely to get infected. The last time they put me on 2 weeks worth of sulfa-antibiotics since penicillin based antibiotics don't work at all. I don't go to the gym now without wiping down anything I use before and after as well as my hands at the same time.

MRSA is ubiquitous today. It's everywhere. That's why it's wrong to call it gay infection. Maybe this USA300 strain is what they're saying is specific to the gay population. I don't know. But the fact is, anyone can get it from anywhere these days.

[ingac70]

9. MRSA is going around elementary schools...

What total crap to make this about gay men.

[and-justice-for-all]

10. The sole source of suicide bombing is Gawd...

everytime that happens we should make a big stink about and blames it on believers as the sole source of suicide bombings. Think they would like that??