Lots of buzz the last few days about an Annals of Internal Medicine article noting the increase in MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus) among gay men. MRSA is treatement resistent and is often referred to as a flesh eating bacteria since it can lead to necrotising fasciitis. The San Francisco Chronicle did a story about it that focused on the prevalence among gay men and especially the Castro district. Peter LaBarbera has sounded an alarm which attempts to elevate the issue to the level of HIV/AIDS.
Now I think MRSA is a serious issue and anything that can be done to prevent the spread is important news. Sexual activity is apparently one way to spread the bacteria and so it seems smart to choose wisely when it comes to sex. Whether gay or straight, this seems to be good advice. Broader warnings seem prudent such as offered by Annals of Internal Medicine commenter Arlen J Peterson regarding the article:
First, let me thank the dedication and development of understanding MRSA clone (USA300) from the medical community to the public. I work for a sexual health centre, which includes providing extensive education and treatment of STI’s to sexually active individuals. I understand the relation between how the community of men who have sex with men increases the risk of MRSA infection (risky behaviors, more sexual partners, drugs, etc), Annals article highlights the risk is associated with skin-to-skin contact primarily by unprotected anal intercourse. My concern is the community of men who have sex with men are the only population emphasized in the article when anal intercourse is practiced fluently in men who have sex with women. Men who have anal intercourse with women do so for reasons mainly of pleasure and a form of birth control, usually unprotected for the latter. So, if an average person were to read a synopsized version in the news based on this article, particularly the young, they might get a message of: ‘It’s a risk for men who have sex with men, I am not of this population, therefore I am not affected.’ Can this article emphasize that it is the unprotected anal intercourse causing the risk of MRSA infection and that is not limited to men who have sex with men? I appreciate it and thank you for your time.
This is a volatile issue as indicated by the 600 plus comments the San Francisco Chronicle received on the news report. I am interested in comment here on the topic of MRSA among sexually active people. Is there something inherent in homosexuality that leads to this spread (I know what I think but I am interested in rational comment)? Or is this a matter of sexual practice only and not sexual attractions?
Fabric softeners, disinfectants, shampoos and other household products are spreading drug-resistant bacteria creating a bacterial timebomb in our drains and rivers. Detergents used in factories and mills are also increasing the odds that some medicines will no longer be able to combat dangerous diseases.
The warning has been made by Birmingham and Warwick university scientists, who say disinfectants and other products washed into sewers and rivers are triggering the growth of drug-resistant microbes. Soil samples from many areas have been found to contain high levels of bacteria with antibiotic-resistant genes, the scientists have discovered – raising fears that these may have already been picked up by humans.
The study suggests that the problem of drug resistance is not merely the result of the over-prescription of antibiotics or poor hygiene standards in hospitals. However, the team stressed the emergence of the most deadly superbugs – such as MRSA that has caused thousands of deaths in hospitals – is not linked to the use of disinfectants.
Drug resistance is not confined to hospitals, but is out in the community. It is spreading and all the time it is eroding our ability to control infections. It is extremely worrying,”
Very cool. I live in an urban setting that has reported MRSA and my germaphobe ways feel much better now. Thanks.
‘Magic bullet’ kills MRSA.
Just as simple as that…
Jose,
Don’t you know that many straight men and women are having anal intercourse? Not all – not most – but many.
Also, if you’re in sexual contact with them (or wrestling – say on a high school or college team) and in close skin to skin contact with someone – you can get MRSA.
It may be that those who have contracted staph that belong to other demographics are hard to define – (father – who is hispanic, mother – who is white, son from another marriage who is black, daughter from this marriage who goes to preschool and they all get MRSA?) Hard to put those people into one group except that they all live in the same household and use the same toilet, bathtub, sink, dishes, towels, etc…
Focusing on one group (that can be identified) is not the issue when it is so easily transmitted via skin contact and people who get it can get it from VARIOUS places and go by different groups.
Hi, it looks as if there is still some confusion.
(1) MRSA is a BACTERIA and Not a VIRUS (people will associate this to flu virus and will think it will go away and won’t seek help)
(2) You don’t need to have sex to catch MRSA.
(3) Getting massage is a parlor can give you MRSA, especially in places you may be embarrassed to talk about.
(4) Bacteria breath oxygen, eat sugar and protein, multiply like our body cells.
“Disease is bad and should be cured. Period.” 81410
That’s dealing with the problem after the fact but the focus needs to be on PREVENTION. Defensive rationalizations are of no value in battling this disease.
There seems to be a great deal of shadow-boxing in many comments here assuming the study is saying what it is not saying and assuming that those focusing on the problem within homosexual communities are ignoring the problem in other communities.
Anal intercourse is an unhealthy practice, period. Almost all men having sex with men practice it. This unhealthy practice introduces a great many diseases as Dr. Jeffery Satinover noted some time back in his Homosexuality and the Politics of Truth. It appears that the “politics of truth” continues unabated in this discussion. J. Matt Barber makes this observation: http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/mbarber/080124
Nemario – the lack of comparison is part of the point. We do not know whether gay transmission of MRSA is more, less, the same as other groups. I have no problem pointing out that risky sex is risky but to isolate one group is to elevate potential that straights think they are off the hook. Behavior is (should be) the focus. In this case, however, the behavior might be going to the gym…it is a little nervewracking.
“The 3 households study…” LOL
The 3 housedolds study… I had read this study before I made my first comment. As well as other studies which document the same tendency among the same populations with particular risk-taking behaviours.
There’s no mention of sexual orientation in these studies, Timothy, only of certain sexual behaviours prevalent among men who have sex with men. Why would anti-gay people blame gays for the spread if this disease were restricted to gays?
I read the article Timothy posted. Frankly it sounds like a lot of damage control. Specifically, the links to infected communities in different areas does not – from what I could tell – specify between heterosexual and homosexual, and neither does it compare or contrast the two.
Concerning the article in Chicago Journals,
“Heterosexual transmission of community?associated methicillin?resistant Staphylococcus aureus has not been documented. As part of a survey conducted in northern Manhattan, we encountered 3 households in which heterosexual transmission was responsible for new community?associated methicillin?resistant S. aureus infection.”
This seems to merely point out that heterosexual transmission is possible. Again, it doesn’t compare the two.
Timothy, thanks for the link to Jim’s extensive review of research on this topic. I think this article should be required reading for those who want to make this into a gay plague.
Is MRSA the new HIV?
If by this question you are asking if it is the new opportunity for those who hate gay persons to accuse them of being diseased and argue that homosexual behavior is unhealthy, then yes indeed it is the new HIV.
If, however, you are asking if there is some new disease being found in the gay community that could spread and cause harm to the community at large, no. Quite the opposite is the case.
http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/is-mrsa-the-new-gay-plague/
That will not, however, stop the haters from claiming it to be so. This sort of story is useful in identifying those who are so motivated.
Jim,
No – just a typing error (as you will n otice – I make many of them and care not to go back and fix them) Anyhow – how did I miss the mark? I’m well aware that any person who engages in frequent sex with multiple partners is going to be at greater risk for sexually transmitted diseases. And if a disease gets into a certain sexually specific population – then it is going to spread faster in that population.
Just to remind me…what is your profession and area of interest??
Mary: A Freudian slip — “hetersexual”? At any rate, you missed the mark.
Let’s look through history and see what hetersexual behavior has caused – syphillis, HPV, cervical cancer, chalmydia (sp??), prostitution, abortions, etc… Hmmm, maybe it’s not the sexuality as such it is people who make bad decisions with their sexuality.
LaBarbera emphasized that “homosexual behavior is unhealthy”. While he is not a medical professional, I am sure most medical professionals would agree. All one has to do is look at the medical evidence.
It seems that the word cure denotes something other than simply preventing disease. At least the way I understand it.
Curing disease includes changes in behavior (wearing a mask over your mouth AND nose, sexual contacts). I did not think it was a self serving comment. Too often the religious have promoted morality as the ONLY cure when cure is really a broad base course of action and treatment. I’d rather focus on that rather than the “immorality” of others.
Dr. Srivasta,
I understand now. It’s a nasty situation, and I appreciate your shedding some light on it.
De-skilling doctors will result in them stop using the existing type of cannulae. If the doctors and nurses find my technique easy, soon they will stop using the existing cannlae. This is not in the interest of the Cannulae manufacturer. The product I developed is in the interest of doctors, nurses and patients.I have tested varius methods on babies before designing this new cannulae. You can see videos in Youtube (my name is Medifix)
Cannula manufacturers developed a new device called ‘Safety cannulae’ this does not offer any added benifit to patients. This device only cover the needle tip after use. The industry is worth 2 Billion/year so companies dont like to loose their product.
On average we use 2-3 to place a cannula in the blood vessels. I am trying to reduce this attept to 1. This will prevent MRSA entering the body and prevent bloodstream infection. Hope this clarify your question
I am bored by that kind of enviro-religious prattle. Disease is bad and should be cured. Period.
Another self-serving comment – insisting what should be done rather than what can be done personally to prevent the spreading of the disease.
Dr. Srivasta,
You made a comment that is very interesting and I want to ask about it. You wrote:
Cannula manufacturers were enthusiastic to start with, because my work was published in a medical journal. Once the company came to know this product will de-skill doctors every manufacturer is reluctant ant to produce the product.
Are you saying that your project would have harmed the jobs or lifestyles of doctors, and that is why manufacturers did not want to produce it?
Medifix,
I think you need to grow up. Unfortunately by accusing others to die, your life will not be spared.
You misunderstood my comment. The position of anti-gay Christians such as LaBarbera has been that gay people have dirty sex and deserve to die of disease because of it. I am making fun of that by labeling it “Christian love”.
At the same time, you must also own up to the fact that there are many health practitioners who have promoted the “gays have dirty sex” meme. The medical community’s hands are not clean. Doctors and medical researchers are human beings with human flaws, not angels with perfect consciences.
Nature is beauty, we must learn to respect. We are not the rulers of this earth. You may say Jesus is, others may argue its Allah and I think its Sun. Over the years we have seen too many garbage thrown in hospitals and polluting the earth. So we have been worki–
I am bored by that kind of enviro-religious prattle. Disease is bad and should be cured. Period.
Mary et al:
Here are is a page on the CDC website with good MRSA information:
MRSA Information
Dr Kadiyali M Srivatsa
Much thanks Dr. Srivatsa. People need to take this very seriously.
Thank you for your work.
Kevin is certainly missing the point. I included the comment from Peterson to make the point that it is behavior not orientation or attractions that is the issue.
I think many commenters here miss the point. Please, read the research paper and conclude for yourself. Here’s an excerpt:
It would be unduly rushed to say that multidrug-resistant USA300 targets men of a certain sexual orientation. This piece of research and others quoted in the references point to the prevalence of risk factors amont men who have sex with men. There was no mention of sexual orientation in that scientific paper.
I think we should put aside the more general topic of superbugs or even of MRSA, because this is about a certain clone of that bacterium and the very particular conditions in which it is spread. They enumerated the main risk factors that were found rampant among men who have sex with men: use of methamphetamine and other illicit drugs, sex with multiple partners, participation in a group sex party, use of the internet for sexual contacts, skin-abrading sex, and history of sexually transmitted infections. You cannot get clearer than that.
This is not the time for calling name and back stabbing comments. We need to do something other than educating how to clean hands.
In 1989, I noticed babies (in neonatal units) who were difficult to introduce IV cannula were getting MRSA infection. As a junior doctor, no one listened to me, so I invented a new technique to help introduce IV cannula (video recording published in youtube) and demonstrated success rate of introducing cannulae in the first attempt was 94%.
Cannula manufacturers were enthusiastic to start with, because my work was published in a medical journal. Once the company came to know this product will de-skill doctors every manufacturer is reluctant ant to produce the product. I abandoned this project.
In 2005, I started working on this again because the number of MRSA cases in UK increased in adult population. So I contacted various cannula manufacturers, one contacted me and were keen to move forward but could not guarantee manufacture or marketing. My mission is to make the product available for use and not shelving, so I wrote to NGOs, Bill gates foundation, even Elton Johns (because the product helps patients with HIV), spoken to ministers, applied for grants and asked rich people to invest but no body wanted to know. It’s sad but imagines you a rich man with loads of money, land up in hospital in shock and a doctor introduce cannulae with difficulty to save your life but introduce MRSA, and how will you feel? Your money will not save your life but my work may prevent you from getting infected.
In UK, NHS spent millions (£) to clean hospital, paid £5 million yesterday in compensation to one patient, carried out research in hospitals and have published their report. MRSA infection spreading is not higher in dirty hospitals. They are now blaming cannulae and catheters. IV Cannulae are used in 80% of patients and the incidence of Staphylococcus has increased in tandem with use of cannulae. Urinary catheter is also associated but not used as common as the cannula.
We have wasted half our life working on this and so feel sad that I could not reduce the speed of this spreading infection. If your readers are keen to do some thing please visit my website and pass on this information to others and email me a note to tell me what you think. We are sure with all your help and encouragement; we may get my product manufactured and help reduce spreading MRSA in hospitals. This could revolutionize how medical product and device manufacturers and marketing companies behave.
Is there something inherent in homosexuality that leads to this spread (I know what I think but I am interested in rational comment)? Or is this a matter of sexual practice only and not sexual attractions?
I think sexual promiscuity creates an environment that allows diseases to flourish, period. Five hundred years ago Columbus’ expedition brought syphilis back to Europe. Today, we have to deal with AIDS. And in another five hundred years, there will be something else.
I strongly disagree with the idea, advanced by some religious conservatives, that these sexual diseases have a theological/religious overtone – as in that they are “God’s punishment”. Evolution and germ theory explains perfectly wel how such diseases develop and flourish. The ancients may have needed religious explanations for tsunamis, earthquakes and plagues, but science makes them superfluous.
However (IMHO) I do think it likely the human body is not as well-adapted to protect itself from disease transmission via male-male intercourse.
500 point essay question answer! what do i win. (g)
Let’s stop the name calling and back stabbing comments. This is serious. Resistant staph infections are contagious, everywhere, and spreading. It’s not just spread through sexual contact and we need to forget about those who are attacking gays and those who are attacking those who are attacking gays and just get down to managing the risk of infection.
Since we have the internet, a medium that was not available during the other historical epidemics (pandemics) why don’t we take this chance to offer real advice on how to practice personal hygiene and safe community living.
Has the CDC put out any guidelines for reducing the risk of infection or how to clean when infection is suspected or present?
People in the ex-gay movement have a history of loudly and publicly linking homosexuality and various health problems (HIV, depression, suicide, etc.), and then promoting their theories of changing or suppressing sexual orientation. Warren is falling in line with that ugly tradition here.
Reply to James comment:
I think you need to grow up. Unfortunately by accusing others to die, your life will not be spared. All these years, we have not respected these micro-organisms and treated them as if they cannot fight back.
If I put you in a test-tube and through you into a box for days, what are you going to do? Won’t you struggle to survive and somehow escape? And after you escape, you will prepare yourself to destroy me. This is what we did to this micro-organism. Too many blood test and often too many antibiotics.
Who are we to tell others how to behave or how to live? We must try and live a clean life, set a good example for others and not wish bad things.
Nature is beauty, we must learn to respect. We are not the rulers of this earth. You may say Jesus is, others may argue its Allah and I think its Sun.
Over the years we have seen too many garbage thrown in hospitals and polluting the earth. So we have been working on this hypothesis to reduce plastic disposable products used in hospitals. Even though our work is unique, not one person has come forward to help or support us. Check out our videos in youtube “How MRSA may enter your body in hospitals”
Please don’t blame others, for this disaster. It had to happen and will get worse.
I have a raging head cold that a lot of my social friends as well as people at work have.
Is Peter LaBarbera going to issue a press release calling me patient zero for the 2008 cold and flu season?
(yes I wash my hands regularly)
Wow – the title of Peter’s article should say it all: “More evidence that homosexuality is a public health hazard” – LOL. More evidence of the right exploiting a news story to slam the gay community, much in the same way many on the right exploited HIV in its early days on this continent to their advantage. That is incredibly sad.
Mary,
I agree with you – gay people did not create MRSA, the overuse of antibiotics did. And all types of people can and have acquired it.
Well, hasn’t it been found in locker rooms, gyms, etc… across the country?? And hasn’t it been found in hospitals? And shouldn’t we all be paying attention to open wounds on our own bodies and coming into contact with unclean surfaces??
Warren said in post 81201:
I do not feel I am promoting the article by LaBarbera but rather reflecting the way people across the spectrum are reacting to this news.
I disagree with you on this Warren. Note how you characterized the LaBarbera article, you said he was “sounding the alarm” you don’t even have to get past the bold print to realize that isn’t what he was doing. “Sounding an alarm” implies he is trying to warn people away from danger. That isn’t what LaBarbera is doing, he is just using other people’s suffering to promote his own bigoted agenda.
I hope to have conversation about how can effected populations reduce their risk and the risk to current low risk populations.
A noble goal, but I don’t see how quoting the LaBarbera article helps achieve it.
Pathogens evolve hundreds of thousands of times faster than our human defense mechanisms.
There is no telling how many STD superbugs are on the horizon or already lurking.
Promiscuous people of any sexual orientation are just plain crazy.
This Staph STD could easily kill thousands if not millions worldwide. And what a miserable, humiliating way to die. Genitals chewed up by bacteria.
I do not feel I am promoting the article by LaBarbera but rather reflecting the way people across the spectrum are reacting to this news. I hope to have conversation about how can effected populations reduce their risk and the risk to current low risk populations.
Why you would promote anything Peter LaBarbera has to say is beyond me.
He’s a demonizing gadfly who is only looking for ways to make the gay community look bad.
That said, this is not a new condition. This brand of staph has been around hospitals for years. It was only a matter of time before it found its way into one community of another.
Much like certain immigrant communities in the US have a higher percentage of TB, this happened to hit the gay community.
Please don’t help Peter LaBarbera take cheap shots. If he were a real Christian, his immediate response would have been “how can we help the people affected”?
Instead it was blaring press releases followed by misinformation and requests for money.
I wish people whom I met and asked for their help had taken my word seriously and helped me. Even to-day majority of people think drug companies will soon invent a new antibiotic or offer a vaccination. I only hope they are right.
I think its too late, this bacteria is getting stronger changing and rapidly spreading than ever. I feel sad and helpless, so have published a website to educate others. Please visit and leave your comments.
Do what you want, but please don’t get Bugged.
More “Christian Love” from LaBarbara: gays have dirty sex and deserve to die from disease because of it. Thanks, Jesus!