NSFW

Lies, Damn Lies, and So-Called Science: Gay Men and Bacteria

Earlier this week, a study on gay men and MRSA, the “flesh-eating” Staph bacteria, caused quite a stir in the media and on the Internet.

Coverage from the New York Times and San Francisco Chronicle to gay blogs such as Towleroad and gay media such as The Advocate set up an echo chamber of gay panic.

That played right into the hands of bigots, like Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality.

The study found the bacteria to “spread rapidly” via sexual contact in the gay communities of San Francisco and Boston.

Homophobic Science

I asked Victoria Stagg Elliott, a senior medical reporter and close friend of mine, to review the study. Because of her career and related training, she’s developed expertise at analyzing medical studies.

Victoria calls the science in this study, “homophobic and looking to paint gay men as filthy carriers of infectious disease, who have too much sex.”

Why? Because MRSA is very easy to transmit, and that means it is already in the broad population.

“Considering that this bug is spread by skin-to-skin contact,” Victoria believes “this is less about being gay and more about being a part of a community,” such as dorm dwellers, military recruits, gym members, etc.

Of course, this is only anecdotal, but the only known case of MRSA in my community is of a straight woman who got it from her young daughter who was infected at school.

This irresponsible heterosexual woman failed to disclose her MRSA infection to her massage therapist, a friend of mine.

Luckily, my friend is up-to-date on the latest developments so when she mentioned her sinus infection, he asked if it was MRSA. It was, so he took extra precautions, such as wearing latex gloves during the massage. That’s ironic considering the massage therapist is a gay men — the type of person the study paints as a transmitter of disease not a healer.

This study is really non-news: Gay men like members of all communities are vulnerable to MRSA, and in related non-news, people touch each other during sex.

Common Lack of Common Sense

I wish the writers of these articles had taken the time to think about what they wrote.

Most of the articles mention that MRSA is spread by skin contact. Considering that fact, it seems strange to to think MRSA would be limited to gay men.

That should have rung a bell for the journalists to take the time to dig a little deeper on this story (something the media titans of the world often don’t give their reporters in the quest for the bottom line).

The gay blogs aren’t hindered by the bottom line. It was just laziness on their part.

Of course, the publisher of the study, the respected Annals of Internal Medicine, should have known better. Perhaps the study was good science, but the scientists poor presentation of it made it fodder for confusion at best, and bigotry at worst.

Showering Before Sex Just Got Sexier

This week’s hullaballoo prompted the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to issue a statement yesterday that made four important points:

Because these were statistically isolated cases, “conclusions cannot be drawn about the prevalence of these strains [of MRSA] among all men who have sex with men.”

• “The CDC’s extensive and continuing study of invasive MRSA in 9 US states indicates that these strains are rare.”
• “Fortunately, there are still effective choices available to treat infections when antibiotics are required.”
• “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 MRSA is a sexually-transmitted infection in the classical sense.”

The take-away is this: “Soap and water before and after sex is always a good thing,” says Victoria. Wash your hands, clean your gym equipment before you use it, and don’t share personal items.

(photo via New York Times)