Homosexual Disease?

[Scribbles]

There is a new bug out called USA300 which seems to be affecting so far homosexual males.
This bug  USA300 manifested most often as infection of the buttocks, genitals, or perineum. In Boston, multidrug-resistant USA300 was recovered exclusively from men who have sex with men.

CLICKHERE

[Acumen]

Oh boy.

[SquirleyWurley]

I deal with MRSA often enough, and CDIFF, etc., I do work in hospitals.  I've probably touched MRSA or CDIFF boldy fluids in the hospital, and I do not have MRSA or CDIFF.

I think the reasons why are: my immune system isn't already compromised, and I used the appropriate precautions, which include wearing gloves when interacting with patients, washing hands between patients, and washing hands after taking off the gloves, wearing a protective gown when someone is under contact isolation, etc.

I wonder how many of the patients with MRSA were already immune compromised with HIV or something else, and I suspect they were not using condoms.  The gloves I wear in the hospital when touching body fluids of people with MRSA, CDIFF, HIV, etc., are either latex gloves or the non-latex equivalent.  Condoms are really important if you don't know the health status of the person you are having sex with.

[Corrigan37]

Condoms are really important if you don't know the health status of the person you are having sex with.

It would seem important for all people, wether they be gay or straight..

[SquirleyWurley]

Well, yes, which is why it's pointless to call it a homosexual disease, except to incite people.

[Acumen]

I deal with MRSA often enough, and CDIFF, etc., I do work in hospitals.  I've probably touched MRSA or CDIFF boldy fluids in the hospital, and I do not have MRSA or CDIFF.

I think the reasons why are: my immune system isn't already compromised, and I used the appropriate precautions, which include wearing gloves when interacting with patients, washing hands between patients, and washing hands after taking off the gloves, wearing a protective gown when someone is under contact isolation, etc.

Hmmmm . . . do you wear a hepa mask?  If not, how do you know you don't have MRSA?  Hehe

[SquirleyWurley]

I'm a student, so I have to rely on the expertise of those around me, and their awareness of whatever condition a patient is in. 

There are always standard precautions, which means I treat any patient like they might have something in their body fluids which I need to be protected from, and that means following the proper handwashing and glove-wearing procedure for ALL patients whether I think they're contagious or not.  With contact precautions there are gowns worn in addition, and when there are droplet and airborne precautions, masks of various kinds are also used.  Of course in the operating room there's all sorts of other precautions.

[Acumen]

Right,  but MRSA can be airborne.  And sometimes we don't discover the disease until it's too late.  I recommend wearing a mask anytime a patient has an inclination to cough or vomit.  Gloves, hand washing, and faith that your colleagues will let you know what to do isn't good enough.

[SquirleyWurley]

Better safe than sorry.  I'll ask some of my teachers about this.

[VLinvictus]

I agree with SquirleyWurley. It doesn't make sense to call something a "homosexual disease."

It disappoints me that such an illness would first manifest itself among gay men but it's interesting to note that lesbians have not been affected and, moreover, were in general not affected by HIV/AIDS to the same degree as gay men. So clearly it's not an issue of orientation but of behavior.

Now, it is simply natural that eventually a bacteria would arise that cannot be controlled by our medicine. It's evolution pure and simple: antibiotics kill off the weaker bacteria and those that survive - immune to the drugs for whatever reason -- will pass on their immunity to the succeeding generation and so on. What does not kill a bacterium makes it stronger.

From what I recall when this first broke a few years ago, it's fairly easy to transmit by simple skin-to-skin contact. All that would have been necessary is for this bacteria, perfected through natural selection, to infect one gay man. It is only natural that during sex would two people be in such intimate contact for such a bacteria to be spread. Since a gay man is likely to have sex generally with other gay men, the bacteria would be passed along among that population.

Are many gay men sexually promiscuous? Yes. But that has very little to do with being gay. It has everything to do with being a man. Men are, on average and in general, perpetually horny pigs who are much more likely to think with our penises than with our brains.

[SquirleyWurley]

I'm a radiography student, so when I'm on OR rotation I'm operating a C-arm (or just standing quietly out of the way)

[SquirleyWurley]

Oh, and thanks for the well-wishing, it's a tough program!

[WorldWarrior]

The "homosexual disease" poster apparently doesn't know all the different kinds of populations that MRSA et. al. infect.


Hey--I used to work in hospital morgues and labs too.

Sounds like we have a regular medical community here.

 

[WorldWarrior]

Ell--well that's at least two of us--a good start.

Thanks for the funny x-ray chicks story.

I've got a million morgue stories--none of them suitable for viewing here.
 

[SquirleyWurley]

Well as long as the surgeon isn't screaming bloody murder, all is fine