Monkeypox. Why is it mainly affecting gay men?

Except the danger of focusing the coverage and comms around men who have sex with men is that the general public will assume that that means it’s transmitted through anal or oral sex when that is not the case. So the people who don’t do that, especially who don’t do it with men, will assume they aren’t at risk.

And the more it’s associated as a gay male problem, the worse the backlash will be when cases start to really hit in children - because more assumptions will get made, and those assumptions will get people hurt.

Doodledog

I think it's important that we are told unambiguously how it is transmitted. If we aren't, then as AmberSpyglass says, there will be rumour and blame, and people will think that they don't need to protect themselves.

I don't think that there is a cover-up of any kind, though. I think that it's more a case that at present the majority of people in the UK with it are gay men. Correlation rather than causation.

They can’t tell us unambiguously how it’s transmitted Doodledog because they don’t know. It’s all in the WHO report I posted above.

I don’t think it’s an intentional cover up, but I do think that sloppy reporting and entrenched homophobia is playing a part.

The vaccine is being offered to healthcare workers in areas specialising in monkeypox cases too. The vaccine is on short supply apparently.

I think it's important that we are told unambiguously how it is transmitted. If we aren't, then as AmberSpyglass says, there will be rumour and blame, and people will think that they don't need to protect themselves.

I don't think that there is a cover-up of any kind, though. I think that it's more a case that at present the majority of people in the UK with it are gay men. Correlation rather than causation.

It’s highly likely that it isn’t mostly men who have sex with men contracting it, just that they’re the ones being diagnosed. Regardless of where it originated, everyone is at risk if this spreads. It can linger on fabric for up to two weeks and may be airborne. Likely cases are being dismissed if they’re not in the above group, so chances are it’s going to spread fast. While there’s a vaccine, it’s currently only being offered to that one group - not because they’re the only ones getting it but because they’re the ones the media and the communications arm of the CDC and WHO are focusing on.

I am I will admit quite sensitive about denying that something is affecting a particular group ( I have no idea if this is the case with monkeypox or if it is that gay men are being tested more). HIV in the 80s predominately affected gay men, and some other groups, I think to pretend otherwise denies the grief and trauma experienced by that group.

If I misunderstood your point, I apologise. I thought you were saying that the means of transmission was anal sex.

Doodledog

Prentice

It does seem to be mainly affecting gay men.Not gay women.
There is a good biological reason why that is.Means of transmission.

No, this is wrong.

Are you suggesting that it is transmitted via semen? It isn't. It is skin to skin contact that transmits it. If someone who has it has sex (or any close skin-on-skin contact) with another person of the other sex or their own they would risk passing it on.

You could give it to a baby by cuddling it - it is not an STD.

I don’t think this is wrong, it was on a BBC programme.
It is true that it is passed by touch and bodily fluids and so on, but also true that so far it is mainly men who have sex with other men who are contracting it.I think the word mainly is self explanatory. It is not yet known as to why this is.

[As an aside Re: gay women. It’s not relevant here, but certainly when I was younger the motto in the lesbian community was “low risk, not no risk.” Sexual activity between cis women can still transmit STDs and I don’t know how prevalent safe sex discussions are in the lesbian community these days!]

Here it is
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jul/23/monkeypox-us-confirms-first-cases-of-virus-in-children

Yes it's completely different to HIV in that means of transmission were a factor in HIV. I think there are documented cases of monkey pox in children now, not just anecdotal evidence.

If people read the WHO link I posted above it explains in much more detail. In short:
Monkeypox is transmitted to humans through close contact with an infected person or animal, or with material contaminated with the virus.
Monkeypox virus is transmitted from one person to another by close contact with lesions, body fluids, respiratory droplets and contaminated materials such as bedding.
Men are not more likely to catch it than women, and no specific link with sexual intercourse has yet been identified.

Prentice

It does seem to be mainly affecting gay men.Not gay women.
There is a good biological reason why that is.Means of transmission.

No, this is wrong.

Are you suggesting that it is transmitted via semen? It isn't. It is skin to skin contact that transmits it. If someone who has it has sex (or any close skin-on-skin contact) with another person of the other sex or their own they would risk passing it on.

You could give it to a baby by cuddling it - it is not an STD.

There should be no reason to think badly of anybody who gets monkeypox.It is a virus that is all.

It does seem to be mainly affecting gay men.Not gay women.
There is a good biological reason why that is.Means of transmission.

It’s downright irresponsible and will lead to serious harm. You’d think after AIDS and covid, we’d learn to report on viruses sensibly but apparently not.

It’s not sexually transmitted - it’s transmitted through touch.

Yes, and there is no parallel with AIDS. I read a while ago that the thinking is that it has been detected in a group of gay men who may have had connections with one another -eg all using the same club or dating app, so they would be likely to pass it to one another. Their sexuality is incidental rather than causal. I think cases are loosely confined to a geographical area too, which would back up that analysis.

I think you're right that some of the reporting is troubling, AmberSpyglass.

It’s not sexually transmitted - it’s transmitted through touch. Because if HIV, gay men are more likely to get tested ergo they’re more likely to get a positive result. And because it’s now associated with gay men in the public consciousness, people are dismissing their symptoms as something else and drs won’t test for it if you’re not a man who has sex with men.

There’s a lot of talk about ‘second chickenpox’ on FB parenting groups and the symptoms they describe are the same as monkeypox.

I’m very worried that once children do start getting diagnosed with what is erroneously believed to be an STI affecting gay men, there are going to be some very unpleasant accusations.

It didn't start with gay men snowberry it originated in Central Africa in chimpanzees. There are various theories as to how it came to the UK, one being anyone who'd had sex with prostitutes heterosexual or homosexual, unknowingly bringing the disease back and passing it on through unprotected sex.

With HIV it was to do with means of transmission if I remember rightly. So for example men were less likely to be infected from a woman than a woman was from a man, due to the level of protection from the virus in different parts of the body.

Worldwide it isn’t. Here’s the WHO detail - according to this it’s not yet known if sexual transmission is possible.
www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/monkeypox

Smileless2012

It was the 'belief' that AIDS was a gay disease that resulted in so many problems. Heterosexuals thought they were 'safe'; they were spreading it too as were drug users sharing needles.

Yes, but why did it start with gay men and basically ripped through gay men at the beginning ing, before then moving on to the wider population?

But it still doesn't explain why monkeypox,or aids at the very beginning, predomintly affected mainly gay men. Why not gay women?
Gay women and heterosexual women and heterosexual men also have sex. Last I heard.
Why isnt it rife amongst them?

It was the 'belief' that AIDS was a gay disease that resulted in so many problems. Heterosexuals thought they were 'safe'; they were spreading it too as were drug users sharing needles.