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NBC News came out and admitted what many have long suspected about the new monkeypox outbreak: that it’s spread through sex between gay men.
In an article Wednesday, NBC reported new research suggests monkeypox is a sexually-transmitted venereal disease that, instead of being spread through skin to skin contact, is actually spread via seminal fluids (semen) and anal sex.
Read more on the revelations from NBC News:
Since the outset of the global monkeypox outbreak in May, public health and infectious disease experts have told the public that the virus is largely transmitting through skin-to-skin contact, in particular during sex between men.
Now, however, an expanding cadre of experts has come to believe that sex between men itself — both anal as well as oral intercourse — is likely the main driver of global monkeypox transmission. The skin contact that comes with sex, these experts say, is probably much less of a risk factor.
NBC goes on to cite a University of Chicago Sexual Wellness Clinic researcher who confirmed the virus, which causes rashes and lesions on the skin, is spread via semen.
“A growing body of evidence supports that sexual transmission, particularly through seminal fluids, is occurring with the current MPX outbreak,” said Dr. Aniruddha Hazra, medical director of the University of Chicago Sexual Wellness Clinic, referring to monkeypox and to recent studies that found the virus in semen.
Likewise, NBC also cites other scientists, Drs. Lao-Tzu Allan-Blitz and Jeffrey D. Klausner, who recently published a research paper coming to the same conclusion.
“It looks very clear to us that this is an infection that is transmitting sexually the vast majority of the time,” Allan-Blitz told NBC News.
In the conclusion to their research paper, Allan-Blitz and Klausner wrote: “The transmission dynamics of human monkeypox, at least across the United States and Europe, appears to be highly consistent with a sexually transmitted infection.”
The question then remains: if monkeypox is spread through sexual contact, why have at least eight young children in the United States contracted the STD?
The state of Oregon has a confirmed case of a child being infected with #monkeypox. The child was infected by an adult. No other information was released by the health agency. https://t.co/YT2gvWkvaD
— Andy Ngô
(@MrAndyNgo) August 18, 2022
And what about the first documented case of human-to-dog transmission?
The first known case of human to dog #monkeypox transmission has been documented in medical journal, the Lancet. The dog caught it from its owners, a non-monogamous gay couple in Paris. The greyhound developed an anal ulceration & mucocutaneous lesions. https://t.co/UkJy1RsJ5X
— Andy Ngô
San Francisco resident David Watson contracted #monkeypox through the casual contact of hugging a friend. He went to the ER three times with extreme pain that “opioids could barely touch.” It took 12 days to get #Tpoxx. His husband AND two dogs were also infected.
— Kristen Hwang (@khwangreports) August 9, 2022
At this point, it’s high time for an investigation to be conducted into whether the children and the canines were victims of sexual abuse.
H/T: Revolver.news