MONKEYPOX: why CDC, NIH, & World Health Organization (WHO) must focus on the 'type of sexual contact' e.g. rectal wall micro-tears & penis micro-tears that is the source of spread; not 'being gay'

by Paul Alexander

It is not about being 'gay'; we must never stigmatize, ostracize etc., this is about public health such that CDC, PHAC, WHO gets off their corrupt asses and critically PSAing the at risk group of risk

First, there must be no hate, stigma, ostracizing. Period, as we do not lose the opportunity to deal with monkeypox.

SOURCE: A sex party organizer in New York asked invitees to check themselves for lesions before showing up.

Grindr, the social networking app, sent a pop-up message about the risk of monkeypox to millions of European and American users. A sex party organizer in New York asked invitees to check themselves for lesions before showing up. And the organizers of the city’s main Pride celebrations posted a monkeypox notice Sunday on their Instagram account.

As hundreds of thousands of people gather in New York City and elsewhere to celebrate Pride this month, city and federal officials, health advocates and party organizers are rushing to disseminate an increasingly urgent health warning about the risk of monkeypox.

“Be aware, but don’t panic,” said Jason Cianciotto, the vice president of communications and policy at the Gay Men’s Health Crisis, summing up the message the group is trying to convey.

The virus, long endemic in parts of Africa, is now transmitting globally, and, while it can infect anyone, at the moment it is spreading primarily through networks of men who have sex with men, officials say.”

Let me get to the point here. The problem is as with HIV in the 1980s and 1990s, they, public health and the medical community even, did not focus on the virus as an infectious pathogen, this is what doomed the optimal HIV response. People, even doctors, let their biases and personal beliefs and experiences cloud their mind and not focus on the virus. Same could happen with monkeypox.

The problem with HIV and monkey pox (this existing outbreak based on what data we have thus far) is that it involves skin to skin contact and transfer of bodily fluids in that skin to skin contact. Principally. At this time, all cases are in men who have sex with men and bisexuals. The transmission risk is heightened and happens if an HIV or monkey pox infected person has sexual contact, e.g. anal contact, with a non infected person.

Transmission risk is far less in females than males for monkeypox at this time. Actually, there are no cases. And this makes sense that all cases thus far are reported in males.

In that sort of physical contact there is often micro-tears and lesions in the rectal wall and on the surface of the penis. Anywhere there are micro-tears and infected bodily fluids can get into, then there is risk of spread. Even pure skin to skin contact, not necessarily penis to anus contact. This is what allows the transfer of bodily fluids from the infection person to the uninfected person.

In the monkeypox infected person, if they are symptomatic, for this outbreak, they will likely have lesions and pustules on their penis and anus. That is what the medicine and reporting says. At this time. My argument has been that the key is to keep the virus confined to this group and to cut the chain of transmission. You can only stop the outbreak if the chain of transmission is cut and you can only do this by abstaining from skin to skin and sex type contact for a period of time e.g. 2 weeks to one month. It is reasonable. If we shut the world down for 2 years, why can’t CDC ask those who engage in skin to skin contact and penis anus sex to abstain for a few weeks? This will potentially starve the virus of new hosts and end this outbreak.

As an example, in Brazil in the heights of the HIV epidemic, very religious Christian Brazil, had one of the highest STD rates and HIV was emerging. Why? Even in the heterosexual community. Why? Because it was likely taken there by the bisexual community, injecting drug use community, commercial sex workers, etc. and Brazilians, all intermixing as high-risk persons engage in multiple high-risk behaviors at once, and Brazilians traditionally report that anal sex is one of the principal modes of sex contact, even heterosexual.

Now with monkeypox, we never thought this was an STD in the classic sense but in this particular outbreak, it is behaving that way, when 99% of infections being in men-who-have-sex-with-men and the rest are in bisexuals. That is what the data shows.

It may be that this particular strain behaves as an STD. We need to study this. Or was it that it was always an STD in Africa but we never looked at it like that?

We are hearing now that the virus may be found in semen?

SOURCE: Semen and monkeypox?

SOURCE: CDC statement on STD type spread in men who have sex with men

“Traditionally, people with monkeypox have developed a fever, swollen lymph nodes, headaches and muscle aches, followed by a rash that starts on their face or in their mouth then spreads to other parts of their body — particularly the hands and feet.

But in many recent U.S. cases, patients first experienced a rash in the mouth or around the genitals or anus.”

It is the micro rectal tearing and the lesions on the penis that causes the transmission of bodily fluids in homosexuals. As we saw in HIV. And potentially what can cause monkeypox to leach out of the gay community. I am explaining it best I can so bear with me.

What I am trying to say is that there must be no stigma or ostracizing of the behavior. It is not the virus or one being a homosexual or bisexual that is the issue. IMO, this is your decision and your private business. The core issue however is, does the form of sexual contact persons in the gay community engage in heighten the risk of transmission? We need to know, we need to be clear, we need to be firm, we need to provide proper guidance and we need to stop playing the eff in politics. Say what must be said so that proper actions can be taken to mitigate risk.

There are reports at present that they have found the pox in semen and that is a clue. The fact that cases are largely in men who have sex with men is another clue. The type of sex they are having is another clue. We have to be straight forward for the key is to stop bisexuals from taking the infection out of that community into the heterosexual community.

Put another way, if a heterosexual couple in their sexual repertoire engages in an intimate behavior that heightens transmission from one partner to the other of bodily fluids that may contain infectious microbes, then that is a problem. One may transmit the infection to the other. So again, it is the type of intimate contact that heightens risk. Another pathogen but HIV or monkeypox could be transmitted this way if it resided in bodily fluids.

The key here so that the reader is not confused as to what I am trying to say is whenever there is tearing of tissue, micro-tears that you cannot see, example it could happen from biting each other, or rough, abrasive physical contact, then bodily fluids can be transmitted. It is why Magic Johnson had to divulge his HIV status and allow players to decide as to their risk.

It is not about being gay/homosexual, bisexual, and I want to make that clear. It is about the skin to skin contact where there are micro-lesions that heighten the risk of transfer between persons. So a heterosexual couple, where one us HIV infected, if there are micro-lesions in the sexual contact, then that could cause transmission. So it is not the virus or being gay that is the issue. It is this too that should have been focused on in HIV etc. and not the push to negate or stigmatize.

It is the type of physical contact that is the issue. This is why HIV left the gay community and entered the heterosexual community. It is because everyone was playing games with the language and not telling the truth that could inform.

Personal biases also clouded the type of discussions we needed to have societally but failed to have. We became judgmental and attacked people and even scientists and doctors were guilty of mistreating gay people. They forgot about the virus. Until we know more, if gay sex or man to man sex (however you wish to state it) heightens the risk of transmission of this monkeypox virus, then it is appropriate for public health to tell the community about this and that physical activity is to be curtailed until the outbreak ends. Why can’t the gay community be told to stop sex contact for a few weeks? This is where public health must have the stones and gonads to speak the truth and stop playing games with the affected community.