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Most people recover within two to four weeks on their own. All known cases stem from the less virulent strain, endemic to Western Africa, which can cause fever, headache, fatigue and lesions concentrated around the genitals. The outbreak has centered in Europe but has also reached the United States and Australia.
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Over the past several weeks, clinics have identified more than 230 confirmed or suspected cases in 18 non-African countries, mostly among men who have sex with men. Cases seemingly unconnected to travel from Africa began surfacing across Europe. In early May, public health officials became aware that monkeypox was spreading in a way not seen before. Monkeypox is not a sexually transmitted disease like HIV, but sex certainly counts as close contact and can facilitate spread. Human-to-human transmission has been relatively rare, but can happen via close contact with lesions, bodily fluids, respiratory droplets and contaminated materials like bed sheets, according to the World Health Organization. Most of the time, humans catch the virus from close contact with rodents or other animals. Since then, two major strains of the virus have become endemic to several African countries, meaning that it is continuously present. The first human case was detected in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1970.
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Monkeypox was discovered in a monkey in 1958. Because of that framing and stigma, many straight people assumed they couldn’t get HIV/AIDS, and many gay people were ostracized and denied care. If monkeypox becomes a “gay disease” in the public’s mind, we risk repeating many of the same mistakes made during the beginning of the AIDS crisis 40 years ago that led to needless suffering and death, Makofane said. “We have to be able to attend to those with the highest risk and burden now, but we know that singling out gay men elicits homophobic responses.” “We need to talk about monkeypox in a way that can help us respond to it without causing further harm in a community that is already marginalized,” he said. “This is a disease that can affect anyone, but currently seems to be affecting gay men,” said Keletso Makofane, a public health researcher at Harvard University. But experts suspect this pattern likely stemmed from a chance event, or events, that then reverberated through close social networks. So far, most identified cases have been in gay or bisexual men. And previous outbreaks of the disease, which was first identified in humans a half-century ago, have affected all types of people. In truth, it spreads by close contact (sex included). Since the outbreak, headlines like “ Gay Community Most Vulnerable to Monkeypox Threat,” “ CDC warns LGBTQ community at higher risk to get monkeypox,” and “ Monkeypox likely spread by sex at two raves in Europe, expert says,” have framed monkeypox as a “gay disease” spread primarily through sex. They’re worried that the emphasis on cases among gay and bisexual men could lead many people to assume they are not at risk and ultimately undermine efforts to contain the outbreak. Much of the coverage of the outbreak, especially on social media, has framed monkeypox as affecting only men who have sex with men - a false narrative that to many public health experts echoes the early days of the AIDS crisis. The rare global monkeypox outbreak is just weeks old, but the early focus on cases among gay and bisexual men risks blinding the world to the risks posed by the virus - and increasing stigma.