New Flesh-Eating Bacteria Strain Is Striking Gay Men

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 1/18/08 at 9:30am

The New York Times

New Bacteria Strain Is Striking Gay Men

A new, highly drug-resistant strain of the “flesh-eating” MRSA bacteria is being spread among gay men in San Francisco and Boston, researchers reported on Monday.

In a study published online by the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, the bacteria seemed to be spread most easily through anal intercourse but also through casual skin-to-skin contact and touching contaminated surfaces.

The authors warned that unless microbiology laboratories were able to identify the strain and doctors prescribed the proper antibiotic therapy, the infection could soon spread among other groups and become a wider threat.

The new strain seems to have “spread rapidly” in gay populations in San Francisco and Boston, the researchers wrote, and “has the potential for rapid, nationwide dissemination” among gay men.

More At Link:
New Bacteria Strain Is Striking Gay Men

[Calvin]

Posted: 1/18/08 at 9:37am

So when's Huckabee going to start calling for a quarantine?

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 1/18/08 at 9:38am

And OUT COME THE HOMOPHOBES! See link below from Salon.com...its also a threat to football players of all people as well. NYT somehow didn't report that.

This is definitely something to worry about but I can't help but have SARS and Bird Flu flashbacks.
More On The New Strain of Staph....check out the letters section, too.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 1/18/08 at 10:19am

The CDC instantly regretted the way this news was twisted by homophobes and issued this clarification yesterday:

===

The strains of MRSA described in the recent Annals of Internal Medicine have mostly been identified in certain groups of men who have sex with men (MSM), but have also been found in some persons who are not MSM. It is important to note that the groups of MSM in which these isolates have been described are not representative of all MSM, so conclusions can not be drawn about the prevalence of these strains among all MSM....

MRSA is typically transmitted through skin-to-skin contact, which occurs during a variety of activities, including sex. There is no evidence at this time to suggest that it MRSA is a sexually-transmitted infection in the classical sense.
CDC Statement on MRSA

[Izzie2]

Posted: 1/18/08 at 12:11pm

....I hope they figure out how to treat it soon.

[DG]

Posted: 1/18/08 at 12:15pm

That press release is eerily familiar

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 1/18/08 at 12:44pm

Also, the highly sensationalistic reference to "flesh-eating" in the lead sentence (and this thread title) is pretty irresponsible. It's a drug resistant strain, and if caught early, it's gotten rid of LONG before there's an issue with necrosis.

It's important for people to know that it's a good idea to wash with soap and hot water after skin contact, and it might not be a bad idea to stop with the body shaving, believe it or not, since staph lives on the skin and is looking for an opening.

It's worth noting that MRSA has become fairly common among all sorts of groups, among them athletes, the military, and most intriguingly, Navy SEALS in San Diego.

If you'd like a more helpful way of looking at this without the subtle (?) anti-gay bias,

click here

Updated On: 1/18/08 at 12:44 PM

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 1/18/08 at 12:48pm

I think Namo pretty much nailed it....as I stated before, this all sounds very Gay-vian Bird Flu to me. But who knows?

Does anyone remember the big SARS scare? I had some extremely intelligent friends who were convinced they had it. Something about the threat of disease feeds on people's imaginations and makes them a little...irrationally paranoid.

That and bedbugs.

[robbiej]

Posted: 1/18/08 at 12:50pm

Mary, I HAD bedbugs. It wounded my soul.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 1/18/08 at 12:54pm

Please note this incredibly important point made by Bloggernista:

The authors of the MRSA article in the Annals of Internal Medicine admit that their study has limitations among them that:

"The data were passively reported or retrospectively collected and are therefore subject to bias."

You can't do a retrospective chart review at a couple of places that serve a gay population without doing comparison retrospective chart reviews of the (oh, how I loathe this phrase as if we aren't IN the general population but here goes) general population.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 1/18/08 at 12:57pm

Mary, I HAD bedbugs. It wounded my soul.


Paging Ashley Judd...

[PalJoey]

Posted: 1/18/08 at 12:58pm

The authors of the MRSA article in the Annals of Internal Medicine ought to be severely reprimanded.

The editors at the New York Times ought to be ashamed of themselves.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 1/18/08 at 1:13pm

The editors at the New York Times ought to be ashamed of themselves.

Yep, as they should with their blame-shame-based editorial about the rise in HIV cases in young gay men editorial of four days ago.

However, I do see growth here. At least in this thread DG didn't announce that "we" had "failed" somehow. So that's good.

[Calvin]

Posted: 1/18/08 at 1:15pm

Seriously, is Paul Cameron working there now?

[Roninjoey]

Posted: 1/18/08 at 1:32pm

I thought this was incredibly reprehensible of the NYTimes. I've been hearing about this thing for a year and all of the sudden it's the new "gay" disease because it pops up in San Francisco. All of this based on inconclusive data.

Maybe they had good intentions in trying to warn people about who it was mostly affecting but I don't see why they need to go and call it the new "gay disease".

[SonofMammaMiaSam]

Posted: 1/18/08 at 1:44pm

Michaelangelo Senorelli talked about this on his show on Sirius yesterday and made an excellent point. The high numbers of gay men is reflective of the fact that gay men generally live in the same neighborhoods in cities while straight men live all over the city and in the burbs.

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 1/18/08 at 1:46pm

That and we like to rub all over each other.

I think "Flesh-Eating Bacteria Strain" should be HD's new name on here.

[Jane2]

Posted: 1/18/08 at 1:51pm

I remember the necrotizing fasciitis scare (the flesh eating bacteria). Could the two be related?

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 1/18/08 at 2:09pm

The high numbers of gay men is reflective of the fact that gay men generally live in the same neighborhoods in cities while straight men live all over the city and in the burbs.

Yeah, no, that's not it at all. In fact, that's an incredibly lame analysis. The fact is, retrospective chart reviews were done in two places with disproportionate numbers of gay men in their population. Without doing comparative chart analyses of the larger population, the most likely similar numbers of MRSA cases among heteros isn't even looked at.

And how behind the curve is Signorelli, still using the gay ghetto model which has become less and less relevant in the last ten years.

[Jonny boy]

Posted: 1/18/08 at 2:44pm

My Neighbor had a MRSA infection on her leg. She showed me the wound and it litterally was like the bacteria had eaten a whole in her leg. She was giving some crazy doses of antibiotics for about 4 weeks and was able to get rid of it for now.

[iflitifloat]

Posted: 1/18/08 at 3:07pm

MRSA is nothing new. I almost lost a leg...and my life...to it following a broken leg in 1990. Those four letters still send a chill down my spine. At that time, there was only ONE antibiotic to which it was susceptible: Vancomycin. It's stands to reason that Vanco resistance would develop over time. And that is really scary, because MRSA of any strain is one nasty bug.

And it's likely to be noticed first in the demographics which are watched most closely, such as gay men and children.

It's unfortunate that it's being pegged as a gay infection... It would be interesting to find out the number of immunosuppressed individuals who been affected: transplant recipients, chemo and radiation patients, children, the elderly. I'm sure those reports will follow, but by then, the labels will have stuck.

And correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the previous "flesh-eating bacteria" a beta strep and not staph aureus?

[Jane2]

Posted: 1/18/08 at 3:16pm

"And correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the previous "flesh-eating bacteria" a beta strep and not staph aureus?"

Now that you mentioned it, I think it was strep.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 1/18/08 at 3:53pm

So if people feel powerless and overwhelmed in the face of badly worded news articles, think of the things we can do:

1) Wash. Use soap (not even antibacterial soap, just plain soap) and hot water. Wash up!

2) If you are put on antibiotics to treat any sort of infection, finish the course of antibiotics. Do not stop taking them because you feel or look better. Take the antibiotics as directed them AND FINISH THEM.

3) Stop shaving your genital areas. Seriously.

[Dolly_Levi]

Posted: 1/18/08 at 4:01pm

"Stop shaving your genital areas. Seriously."

AMEN to that.

[Calvin]

Posted: 1/18/08 at 4:07pm

Probably a stupid question, but why? (and I'm asking it earnestly)

Is it because of increased infection risk from nicked areas?