Lauren Duffy, the Sexual Health Services Manager at Manchester’s LGBT Foundation, says reporting of monkeypox as a ‘gay disease’ is just one of a number of misconceptions surrounding the virus which could also lead to further fear and hysteria. Viruses can affect anyone and we all need to take responsibility for ourselves and look out for others during any outbreak.” Ultimately, Covid, HIV and the common cold don't discriminate. ".For us at George House Trust, the important thing with this outbreak is that gay and bisexual men are looking after their health and being checked out. "“Monkeypox is a virus that can impact anyone," Chief Executive Darren Knight said. HIV charity George House Trust added it was important to stress that monkeypox doesn't discriminate.
Gayness may become associated with promiscuity and risk-taking, or with recklessness even. So much reporting about it mentions saunas and gay parties. He explains: “There is a real risk that monkeypox will further stigmatize gay communities. Jaime, who is also the author of ‘From HIV to COVID-19: Viral Times’, said he believes this association could reverse the work done since the 80s through harmful stigma. And, further, it will make some people associate ‘gay’ with disease once again.” "Monkeypox is also very worrying because it will put sexual health services and public health services under enhanced pressure - when they are already hardly able to cope to begin with. There are dozens of confirmed cases of monkeypox in the UK, but the UK Health Security Agency says the risk remains low (Image: PA) It is a serious condition and, as such, community transmission like this is worrying-especially for those who could be most affected, such as those who are immunosuppressed. Anybody who has close contact and fluid exchange could get monkeypox. “However, this is not because of their sexuality - it is because they may have had more close contacts. “Men who have sex with men have been, so far, the biggest proportion of those affected,” Jaime García-Iglesias, a research fellow at the University of Manchester, tells the Manchester Evening. READ MORE: 'You're an embarrassment': Manchester MPs slam Boris Johnson's apologyīut, while a number of reported cases are within the MSM community and through sexual networks, the virus can be passed on to anyone through close contact, such as via bodily fluids. This has already led to some people linking monkeypox as a ‘gay disease’ - with echoes of the language around the AIDS epidemic in the 80s and 90s which was, at a time, similarly wrongly labelled a ‘gay plague’. Little is known about how the disease, which rarely thrives outside of Western and Central Africa, has managed to spread around the world.Ī significant proportion of the recently reported Monkeypox cases have been identified has being among gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (MSM) following outbreaks at two raves held in Spain and Belgium.
Symptoms can include fever, headaches and rashes. The virus, which is transmitted to humans from animals, is thought to be similar to smallpox but less severe and less infectious.
Cases of the little-known disease are being investigated in Europe, Australia and America, with over 100 cases already reported in the UK. In just a few weeks, there has been an ‘unprecedented’ number of cases of monkeypox around the world.