News :: Local
Keep Sex Venues Open! Packed Crowd Hears Clear Message by Cody Lyon
EDGE ContributorMonday Feb 25, 2008 A standing-room only crowd packed an assembly hall at the LGBT Center in New York’s Greenwich Village on Thursday night, Feb. 21, for a lively town meeting to address a number of concerns facing the New York’s gay community.
Organizers called the forum "Staph, Bath and Beyond" a lighthearted reference the retailer, although moderator and Center director Dr Barbara Warren jokingly informed the mostly male audience that towels would not be on sale that night.
In truth, the forum sought to address HIV prevention, sensational reporting in the media surrounding new MRSA cases and finally, what to make of rumors that the city was reacting to these reports by considering a crackdown on public sex venues. The various speakers on the dais and men and women on the floor seemed united in their vehement opposition to the city shutting down sexual venues, whether bath houses, sex clubs or private impromptu sex parties.
Dr.Gary Blick of Circle Medical Group, Dr. Perry Halkitis, an outspoken gay research professor at New York University, Dr. Melissa Marx from the New York City Department of Health’s Communicable Disease Bureau, and Dr. Monica Sweeney, the Health Department’s assistant commissioner for HIV Prevention and Control.
After explaining some basic facts on MRSA, Dr. Gary Blick scorned much of the mainstream media for sensational and shrill headlines concerning the communicable disease. A recent medical journal report from San Francisco researchers published in the "Annals of Internal Medicine" on February 19, but had already appeared had been widely reported as new flesh eating bacteria that was being spread among gay men.
The medical journal report, which looked at two control groups out of Boston and San Francisco, had said, "infection with USA300 MRSA is common among men who have sex with men, and multi-drug resistant MRSA infection might be sexually transmitted in this population." The headlines were seized by some members of social conservative groups like Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans for Truth who said the outbreak was further affirmation that "homosexual behavior is unhealthy."
A Healthcare Worker’s Disease--NOT Gay Men
But as Dr. Blick noted, MRSA is not a sexually transmitted disease (STD); instead it’s communicable, and is transmitted by touch. Despite some misleading reporting, gay men had not been responsible for its spread. Instead, he noted it was, ironically, mostly healthcare workers, especially their hands moving from one patient to the next, who had been the primary harbingers of the disease.
Blick’s important fact and distinction was further confirmed by Marx, who told the group that the city is preparing a more detailed report on MRSA infections among gay men that will be released in the coming weeks.
Both Blick and Marx were clear that hygiene is probably the most important precaution an individual can take in preventing a MRSA infection. Blick said it was smart to look at a person with their clothes off, check for pimples or sores and then make a decision as to whether or not to proceed or move on to contact. Regardless, frequent showering that involves soap and scrubbing with friction is essential to prevent MRSA--a simple solution, in fact.
While studying the New York reports of infection among gay men, "One question that we asked in our recent study, how long do you wait after a sexual encounter to shower?" Marx added. It turns out that on average MRSA patients wait 30 minutes or more than non-MRSA patients--very possibly a direct statistical correlation.
When a person knows they might be going into a sexual situation, they should go prepared with a clean towel that they won’t be sharing, some hand gel and some soap, she advised.
Next: Fireworks on City Sex Club Memo
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