While members of the World Health Organization want to rename monkeypox, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have published new guidance, which includes how to have sex when infected with the virus.
The CDC has issued bizarre guidance telling Americans infected with monkeypox to have sex by masturbating at least six feet away from their partner, among other recommendations.Guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says anyone who has the disease must not have sex.But for those who ignore the advice, the agency has published a list of the dos and donts under the bedsheets.Among its tips was also to have sex while still fully-clothed, to ensure all rashes are covered and even to avoid kissing.
Other recommendations also very disturbing.
Patients and prospective patients are also advised to “wash your hands, fetish gear, sex toys and any fabrics” after having sex and “masturbate together at a distance of at least 6 feet, without touching each other and without touching any rash or sores.”The odd guidance invoked New York City’s bizarre recommendation that sexually active people use “glory holes” during the coronavirus pandemic to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
A link to the guidance is here, for those of you who are pox-curious.
There are currently over 100 cases in the United States and 2100 worldwide. Scientists are scrambling to understand how this disease has suddenly become much more transmissible.
Given the unusual nature of the outbreak, scientists initially suspected that the virus may have mutated into a more transmissible form. However, genomic sequences studied from the outbreak don’t back this up, WIRED reported.It was suggested that stopping the smallpox vaccination program led to a decline in immunity against orthopoxviruses like monkeypox. Increasing air travel post COVID could also helps virus spread. But this does not explain why the outbreak is happening now, Jo Walker, from the Yale School of Public Health, told the magazine.”Maybe a random series of mutations in the last few months set this all off,” he said. “Or maybe our luck ran out, and it took until now for a monkeypox case to make its way to a major population center, get on an airplane, and kickstart an outbreak without hitting a dead end.”There is also the question as to whether the virus can be sexually transmitted. Some, but not all, cases have also been linked to sex. Scientists are still researching this.According to Reuters, researchers at Italy’s Spallanzani Institute have detected fragments of the monkeypox virus in semen from six of seven samples from monkeypox patients. One of these was found to be potentially capable of infecting another person. These results are extremely preliminary and should be taken with caution, however.
Personally, I am looking forward to an analysis of the monkeypox genome from this outbreak and contrast it with the genomes from previous ones.
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