New Bacteria Strain Is Striking Gay Men

[jeancarleo]

By LAWRENCE K. ALTMAN
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.
The study was based on a review of medical records from outpatient clinics in San Francisco and Boston and nine medical centers in San Francisco.
The Castro district in San Francisco has the highest number of gay residents in the country, according to the University of California, San Francisco. One in 588 residents is infected with the new multidrug-resistant MRSA strain, the study found. That compares with 1 in 3,800 people in San Francisco, according to statistical analyses based on ZIP codes.
A separate part of the study found that gay men in San Francisco were about 13 times more likely to be infected than other people in the city.
The San Francisco researchers suggested that scrubbing with soap and water might be the most effective way to stop skin-to-skin transmission, particularly after sexual activities.
MRSA, for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, was once spread chiefly in hospitals. But in recent years, a number of healthy people have acquired it outside hospitals.
Nearly 19,000 people died in the United States from MRSA infections in 2005, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported.
The infection can cause unusually severe problems, including abscesses and skin ulcers. The bacteria can invade through the skin to produce necrotizing fasciitis, giving them the popular name of flesh-eating bacteria. They can also cause pneumonia, damage the heart and produce widespread infection through the blood.
Among gay men in the study, MRSA was spread by skin contact, causing abscesses and infection in the buttocks and genital area.
The new strain is closely related to earlier ones. Both are known as MRSA USA300.
The strain is much more difficult to treat because it is resistant not just to methicillin, but also many more of the antibiotics used to treat the earlier strains, said Dr. Henry F. Chambers, an author of the new study.
The new strain contains a plasmid called pUSA03.
“This particular clone is resistant to at least three other drugs, clindamycin, tetracycline and mupirocin,” Dr. Chambers said in a telephone interview.
Of the alternatives recommended by the C.D.C. and the Infectious Diseases Society of America, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (Bactrim), clindamycin and a tetracycline, “this strain is resistant to two of those three,” he added. “In addition, the new strain is resistant to mupirocin, which has been advocated for eradicating the strain from carriers.”

[proseros]

What's the date on this article?

Aside from that however-Here we go again. A new "gay" disease that eventually turns out to be "str8 strained" and eventually the incestuous, turd-eating, horse-fucking evangelists too...

Wutever. But it sounds like old news to me.

Can you imagine that? Droves of people running through the streets melting.
Wonderful. Ah, the wonders of biological / biochemical warfare...

[tell_no_one99]

source your article you got that from somewhere

if it came from an email then or you made it up then you are a douchebag for posting it

[gb11vt18]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/15/health/15infe.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

I found it I think

[DiamondDog]

What's the date on this article?

Aside from that however-Here we go again. A new "gay" disease that eventually turns out to be "str8 strained" and eventually the incestuous, turd-eating, horse-fucking evangelists too...

Wutever. But it sounds like old news to me.

Can you imagine that? Droves of people running through the streets melting.
Wonderful. Ah, the wonders of biological / biochemical warfare...

This is old news, at least where I'm from. They've had some elementary and Jr. highschools close for a day or two because of Staph infections among students.

[jeancarleo]

Thank you "gb11vt18" for the link. A Canadian friend of mine sent me that article via e-mail.

[proseros]

Okay. Folks- Are you "getting" all of this on camera? Are you seeing this shit?
People we have to be very careful and very critical about what we are told about some things...

"A separate part of the study found that gay men in San Francisco were about 13 times more likely to be infected than other people in the city."

What "separate" study? And what about being 'gay' (which at the end of the day is just a word) makes anyone 13 TIMES more likely to be infected with this-A bacteria of all things. HEY PEOPLE! WAKE UP! IT'S BACTERIA, NOT A VIRUS. The staph scare in New York several months ago made it quite clear that this bacteria is everywhere, and it is common. So there's no way any one person or group of people can be 13 times more susceptible to infection by it unless they're being infected with it, or exposed to such high loads of it that they have to get it-PAY ATTENTION:

"The Castro district in San Francisco has the highest number of gay residents in the country, according to the University of California, San Francisco. One in 588 residents is infected with the new multidrug-resistant MRSA strain, the study found. That compares with 1 in 3,800 people in San Francisco, according to statistical analyses based on ZIP codes."

Do the math...

I'm done talking.

[EvilDoctor]

The San Francisco researchers suggested that scrubbing with soap and water might be the most effective way to stop skin-to-skin transmission, particularly after sexual activities.


People should be doing this anyway after anal sex, especially considering this is a common source of E. Coli contamination, which, if you get one of the more serious strains, it could result in death.

[EvilDoctor]

So there's no way any one person or group of people can be 13 times more susceptible to infection by it unless they're being infected with it, or exposed to such high loads of it that they have to get it

Save your conspiracy theories.

A very sexually active group that engages in fairly risky behaviour will more like contract sexually transmitted diseases with which most are treated with antibiotics. However the greater the use of antibiotics, the more likely to create antibiotic resistant strains of common bacteria that reside in the human bowels, which will spread with anal sex, even with a condom. All you have to do is get some bacteria on your fingers and touch something else.
That's why it's important to wash (or even better shower with HOT water and soap) after engaging in anal sex.

[proseros]

Save your conspiracy theories.

A very sexually active group that engages in fairly risky behaviour will more like contract sexually transmitted diseases with which most are treated with antibiotics. However the greater the use of antibiotics, the more likely to create antibiotic resistant strains of common bacteria that reside in the human bowels, which will spread with anal sex, even with a condom. All you have to do is get some bacteria on your fingers and touch something else.
That's why it's important to wash (or even better shower with HOT water and soap) after engaging in anal sex.


http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/mrsa/DS00735

"Staph bacteria are normally found on the skin or in the nose of about one-third of the population. If you have staph on your skin or in your nose but aren't sick, you are said to be "colonized" but not infected with MRSA. Healthy people can be colonized with MRSA and have no ill effects. However, they can pass the germ to others."

I don't know about conspiracy theories. I only know what does and does not make sense. Maybe I'm missing something, but I've never heard of staph bacteria residing in the bowels and if that were the case then we need to identify another entire group of of prescription and OTC medication users who are also at risk along with everyone else with potentially lowered immune response. Again we are talking about bacteria, not viruses. Butt-fucking does not get you MRSA. Lack of common sense hygiene does.

What? Gays don't wash their hands? Or they keep sticking fingers in each others butts, or sneezing on each other? Make me understand how that all works-until then, I can do without this kind of slanting in the media; and if that is what you mean by "conspiracy" then that is what I am talking about, which is why I suggest intent, since that is the only way the premise of this report (again unless I am missing something) can makes any sense, to me anyway.

[nakedambrosia]

This post was disturbing relating to the target group of Gays and Bisexuals because MRSA is found everywhere to include recent outbreaks in schools and a high school football team.
Brushing against someone accidently in a locker room could cause an MRSA infection if an open wound/skin breach was present. MRSA can be found just about anywhere especially in a hospital setting where surfaces are nuked with powerful antibacterial and antiviral solutions daily. That's how these super bugs came about-the stongest survived.
So I found this post offensive because why set aside a segement of the population as a problem area when MRSA is just about everywhere. I think that it is appropriate to be aware of MRSA dangers in all areas of society and take necessary precautions on a daily basis, one of which is thorough hand washing after various tasks. Let's be aware that MRSA can strike from an unexpected source.

[Bluebiyou]

"Lies
Damn lies
and statistics"

Mark Twain

[diamond_tether]

The sword: That gay men are yet again/still are an inherently disgusting and vile breed of human being prone to filth and eventually destroying us all with their behavior. (Notice a distinct lack of homosexuality affecting women's contracting of the infection)

The dagger: By washing the way any intelligent human being does (with soap and water), you can fend away the icky, icky homosexuality.

Terrible scientific reporting aside, the article smacks to me of overall media propaganda. It's based entirely on the current media darling of fueling the Antibacterial-Chic America, and uses that premise to weakly hop on the bash band-wagon of a minority group that's already constantly used this way (AIDS, STDs in general). It bothers me that the Times would publish something so..sensationalist..to get a few more folks to pick up the paper. And haven't I heard that gay men also have the stereotype of being meticulously clean?

[wanderingrichard]

GESU CRISTO y MARIA!! i can smell the BULLSHIT all the way out here in the upper corner of the west coast!!!

this is another gay bashing "Blue Envelope" type article...

somebody please source this out to it's roots and expose it....

[vittoria]

next thing you know the new trendy anti gay/bi disease will be one where your lips will fall off if you kiss one...

screwing induces spontaneous combustion...

and since when does one do a statistic about a disease/virus/bacteria and center it upon zip codes? ( only when they are trying to go for a certain group of people... ANY minority... or those who live where they test bombs in the drinking water or live under those high voltage electric lines....)


BASTAGES

V

[proseros]

"Lies
Damn lies
and statistics"

Mark Twain

No, I'm not so concerned about the "truth" as much as the "dare" of it all.
We can too easily dismiss propaganda and welcome disinformation. Like weather balloons that land in people's backyards and witnessed by dozens a credible person?

"What was that?"
"Oh nothing, just wolves stealing the sheep now and again."
"Do they steal cattle, and people too?"

So let's continue in spite of it all to be careful. Certainly-damn what they say! Save the story that has not been told.

[proseros]

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=/Culture/archive/200801/CUL20080126a.html

http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&q=mrsa%20%20and%20anal%20sex

[*pan*]

the gay thingy is bullshit unless your a total nasty.
Communicable Diseases and Epidemiology
Methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA)


Staphylococcus aureus, often referred to simply as "staph," is a type of bacteria commonly carried on the skin or in the nose of healthy people. Staph bacteria are one of the most common causes of skin infections. MRSA refers to types of staph that are resistant to an antibiotic called methicillin and related antibiotics. This means that infections with the bacteria do not respond to some of the antibiotics that are commonly used against staph infections. While 25% to 30% of the population is colonized with staph (meaning that bacteria are present, but not causing an infection or symptoms), approximately 1% are colonized with MRSA. In some areas of the country, MRSA is the most common cause of skin and soft tissue infections seen in emergency departments. MRSA is transmitted most frequently by direct skin-to-skin contact or contact with shared items or surfaces that have come into contact with someone else's infection. MRSA transmission can be prevented by simple measures such as hand hygiene and covering infections. It is generally not necessary to close schools because of a MRSA infection in a student.

To reduce the risk of getting and spreading MRSA, you should:

See your health care provider promptly for evaluation and treatment of any skin or soft tissue infection.
Cover open or draining wounds at all times with a clean bandage or clothing – contact with drainage from an infected wound greatly increases the chance of transmission. If you have an open infected wound that cannot be kept securely covered, avoid physical contact with others until the wound is healed.
Wash your hands frequently with warm water and soap. Soaps containing antibacterials are not recommended.
Avoid sharing towels, clothing, or other objects that have come into contact with an open or draining wound.
Clean and disinfect any object, equipment, or surface that has come into contact with an open or draining wound. Use detergent-based cleaners, freshly made diluted bleach solution (1 tablespoon household bleach in 1 quart cool water, which is a 1:100 dilution equivalent to 500-615 parts per million [ppm] of available chlorine) or an EPA-registered disinfectant that is effective at removing MRSA from the environment. Cleaners containing antibacterials are not recommended.

and there ya have it, anyone can get it and does.
thats why i always wash up and clean out after anal sex.