Bay Windows- January 24, 2008
Ethan Jacobs, ejacobs@baywindows.com

The reports quickly became fodder for anti-gay activists. The day after news of the study broke, Matt Barber, policy director for cultural issues for Concerned Women for America, released a statement using the study as a pretext for gay bashing.

"In recent years our culture has adopted a laissez faire attitude toward sexual deviancy. Television shows like Will and Grace glorify the homosexual lifestyle while our children are taught in schools that homosexuality is a perfectly healthy, alternative sexual 'orientation.' 'Stay out of our bedrooms!' we're often commanded by militant 'gay' activists. Well, now the dangerous and possibly deadly consequence of what occurs in those bedrooms is spilling over into the general population. It's not only frightening, it's infuriating," wrote Barber.

Anti-gay crusader Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth used the story to take aim at bisexuals as well as gay men, issuing a statement saying, "We know that bisexual behavior (men on the 'down low') helps spread dangerous diseases to the general population: how many deaths have to result from this 'second-hand sodomy' before authorities take corrective action?."

Dr. Kenneth Mayer, research director for the Fenway Community Health Center and one of the authors of the study, said that he believes the mainstream media helped fuel the efforts by anti-gay activists to exploit the study for political gain by describing multi-drug resistant MRSA as a gay disease and comparing its spread to that of HIV.

"The media, they're not epidemiologists and they're not lab people or clinicians. And they're like, the public has this idea of how AIDS is spread among gay men, and we can say this is analogous. But it's not analogous," said Mayer.

He said he did not believe the press release that UCSF sent out to publicize the study, which appeared in the Feb. 19 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine, was purposely incendiary. Nevertheless the outcry from LGBT advocates over the use of the study by some activists to attack gay men prompted the university to issue a mea culpa, emphasizing that the university opposed using the research to stigmatize gay men.

"We regret that our recent news report ... about an important population-based study on MRSA USA300 with public health implications contained some information that could be interpreted as misleading. We deplore negative targeting of specific populations in association with MRSA infections or other public health concerns, and we will be working to ensure that accurate information about the research is disseminated to the health community and the general public," read the statement.

Despite claims by anti-gay activists that the study highlights the dangers of homosexuality, Mayer said staph infections are common among the general population, often transmitted via skin-to-skin contact. He said athletes are one common group of people who get staph infections, often as a result of getting cuts or bruises.

Mayer said what makes the study noteworthy is that the spread of multi-drug resistant MRSA among gay men in San Francisco and Boston seems to be related to sexual transmission. Sex between men was a risk factor in the spread of the multi-drug resistant MRSA, but Mayer said because it can be spread by skin-to-skin contact researchers were unable to determine exactly how it was transmitted.

"We can't, based on the data we have so far, give people a sense of the level of risk [of different sex practices]," said Mayer.

Another noteworthy finding of the study, Mayer said, was that in general multi-drug resistant versions of staph have been seen in hospital settings, where many patients are using antibiotics.

"The news over the last few years is this microbe, like other microbes, has gotten out into the community more and is more prevalent in the community," said Mayer. He said Fenway began seeing this strain of MRSA in patients as far back as 2000 and has been following it closely.

The study found that incidence of multi-drug resistant MRSA infection in San Francisco was highest in the neighborhoods with the most concentrated gay populations. No such geographically-based analysis was done in Boston.

Mayer said the best way to prevent MRSA infection is to practice good hygiene, including daily showers, regular hand-washing, and paying attention to any changes to one's body. The microbes should be susceptible to soap and water, so Mayer said people should shower after having sex.

Mayer said gay and bi men should not see multi-drug resistant staph as a crisis but rather as one more issue they should pay attention to in order to maintain their health. He said people should be out to their providers to ensure that they know their patients may be at risk for multi-drug resistant MRSA and prescribe the most effective treatment.

"If a person notices a bump or boil in the groin or another part of the skin and it looks like it's getting bigger very quickly, meaning hours ... don't wait on it days and days. Go see a clinician and get it evaluated," said Mayer.

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