Gay & bi men reduce sexual partners to fight monkeypox exposure

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

The spread of monkeypox is causing men who have sex with men (MSM) to reduce their numbers of sexual partners, according to survey results released this week by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The CDC’s survey found that 48 percent of respondents had reduced their number of sexual partners, 50 had reduced their number of one-night stands, and 49 percent reduced the amount of sex they had with men that they’d met through hookup apps, The Hill reported.

The publication noted that local public health officials have been hesitant to suggest that people practice sexual abstinence as a key approach to avoiding possible exposure, noting that the strategy may be ineffective even though the federal government championed it during the HIV/AIDS epidemic of the 1980s and ’90s.

There are just over 15,000 cases of monkeypox in the U.S. as of Monday, according to the CDC. However, infectious disease experts think this number is likely an undercount. President Joe Biden declared a national state of emergency for monkeypox in early August. The World Health Organization (WHO) also declared monkeypox a Public Health Emergency of International Concern in late July.

Both the New England Journal of Medicine and WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus have said that the epidemic has mostly spread amongst MSM. Accordingly, the Biden administration has rolled out pop-up vaccination sites at queer events like Atlanta Pride and New Orleans’ Southern Decadence.

However, one report suggested that the high case numbers among MSM may have to do with the fact that…

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