Report: Research Suggests Sex Between Men Driving Monkeypox, Not Merely Skin Contact

Sex between men appears to be the main factor driving the spread of monkeypox, new research suggests.

For months, public health experts have suggested that monkeypox is being spread primarily through skin to skin contact, as the establishment media continued in beating around the bush in its reporting of the illness, which is believed to have its origins in two sex raves in Europe — a theory Dr. David Heymann, a leading adviser to the World Health Organization (W.H.O.), acknowledged in May.

“We know monkeypox can spread when there is close contact with the lesions of someone who is infected, and it looks like sexual contact has now amplified that transmission,” he said at the time.

In July, W.H.O. chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged gay and bisexual men to limit their number of sexual partners, as the vast majority of cases worldwide were among men who have sex with men.

“That means making safe choices for yourself and others, for men who have sex with men,” Tedros said. “This includes, for the moment, reducing your number of sexual partners.”

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) currently states that the virus is “spreading mostly through close, intimate contact with someone who has monkeypox,” and it, too, acknowledges that data suggest that “gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men make up the majority of cases in the current monkeypox outbreak.”

“However, anyone, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, who has been in close, personal contact with someone who has monkeypox is at risk,” the CDC clarified.

And now, experts are reaffirming this belief on the virus’s spread.

According to NBC News:

Now, however, an expanding cadre of experts has come to believe that sex between men itself — both anal as well as oral intercourse — is likely the main driver of global monkeypox transmission. The skin contact that comes with sex, these experts say, is probably much less of a risk factor.

…

“A growing body of evidence supports that sexual transmission, particularly through seminal fluids, is occurring with the current MPX outbreak,” said Dr. Aniruddha Hazra, medical director of the University of Chicago Sexual Wellness Clinic, referring to monkeypox and to recent studies that found the virus in semen.

Consequently, scientists told NBC News that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other public health authorities should update their monkeypox communication strategies to more strongly emphasize the centrality of intercourse among gay and bisexual men, who comprise nearly all U.S. cases, to the virus’ spread.

As of August 17, the U.S. had 13,517 confirmed cases of the virus. California and New York make up over one-third of U.S. cases.

The Biden administration declared monkeypox a public health emergency earlier this month as Health and Human Services secretary Xavier Becerra stated that Americans must take the virus “seriously” and urged them to “take responsibility to help us tackle this virus.”