[PD수첩] Sexual minorities at the center of the spread of new infectious diseases, misconceptions and truth about monkey pox

– Homosexuality festival, misreported by some media to label LGBT people as hateful

– During the COVID-19 pandemic, hatred of Asians in the US was 260%, New York City 360%

– Korea ranks second in the OECD in terms of the number of hospital beds, but ranks lowest with 9.7% of public health beds.

On the night of the 28th, PD Notebook reported for the first time in England and Spain, where the number of confirmed cases of monkey pox increased rapidly in regarding two months. Monkeypox, which has infected thousands of people worldwide, most of the confirmed cases were male homosexuals or those who enjoyed sexual intercourse (MSM). Among some people, suspicions regarding sexually transmitted diseases arose. However, experts said that sexually transmitted diseases are not a problem and that infection can be transmitted through simple physical contact.

Around May, one of the WHO advisers said, ‘It may have been spread at the recent frenzy parties in Belgium and Spain’, sparking hate and attacks from the gay community. Male homosexuals took the position that some media reports were unpleasant. One gay man claimed that her reporting headlines were ‘gay..’ and always blame us.” An AIDS charity in the UK was wary of stigmatizing LGBTQ people. Trust spokeswoman Alex Terrence Higgins said: “Most cases are being found in gay and bisexual men, and some say they feel they are being targeted.

In 1970, a 9-year-old boy in the Congo was infected with monkeys and learned that monkeypox can also be transmitted to humans. The Nigeria Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been fighting monkeypox since a long time ago. There is no mention of anything related to homosexuality. In Nigeria, 70% of cases of monkeypox are male and 30% are female. Many patients were younger than 10 years of age. Experts explained that the main transmission route for monkey pox is close contact. “Anyone can get it,” said Paul Hunter, a member of the WHO Infection Prevention Committee. He explained that it can spread well among heterosexuals because it is biologically no different from male homosexuals and ordinary men. In the case of monkey smallpox, it was divided into two types: Central African type and West African type. In West Africa, the fatality rate is up to 3.6%, but the symptoms are relatively mild, and even if infected, most have been cured without special treatment. This is far lower than the 10% fatality rate in Central Africa. Outside of Africa, most cases of monkeypox infection were mild. So far, there have been no deaths in Europe, when the total number of confirmed cases exceeded 4,000. David Heyman, WHO adviser, said, “The media are now sending out pictures of infection caused by the Central African virus, which causes disease.

Reports that hold specific groups accountable for the epidemic have a high risk of inducing hate crimes. Hate crimes involving violence once morest Asians for no reason have skyrocketed in the United States since the outbreak of COVID-19, a 260% increase across the United States and 360% in New York City. Early in the Corona Pandemic, the media reported that Corona 19 was the ‘Wuhan virus’ or ‘Chinese virus’ because it originated in Wuhan, China. The World Health Organization has officially proposed the name of the epidemic as COVID-19, stating that the name ‘Wuhan virus’ may incite prejudice and hatred. But then US President Donald Trump did not accept the offer. Former President Trump responded to a reporter who asked the question to ask, “Ask China regarding the question of how many people around the world lose their lives.” Crimes targeting Asians have also become more serious. Filipino-American Noel was waiting for the subway when a stranger swung a knife in his face and wounded him. He says that only being Asian was the reason he was stabbed. If the hate once morest homosexuality continues, similar hate crimes may continue.

On the 22nd, a case of monkey pox was also confirmed in Korea. The government raised the crisis rating for a new infectious disease from ‘attention’ to ‘caution’. In the 21st century, SARS, MERS, and swine flu, Corona 19, etc. were RNA viruses that were easy to mutate. On the other hand, monkey smallpox is a DNA virus, and the infectious disease specialist Shin Sang-yeop said, “It is quite large and its structure is very stable, so it hardly mutates. I can’t keep it,” he said. However, the recent epidemic of monkeypox in Europe and North America is spreading faster than experts expected. According to a report by the British health authority, 48 mutated genes were identified when comparing the current virus with monkey smallpox, which appeared in 2018. However, François Balou, a professor of genetics at UCL University, an authority on genetics, says that this level of variation alone cannot predict trait change. Fortunately, a vaccine once morest the monkeypox virus has already been developed. The UK, the US and Canada have started vaccinating monkeypox in close contacts, including gay communities. Korea also plans to introduce additional vaccines and treatments.

Even if it is not monkeypox, there is a sufficient probability that a zoonotic epidemic will strike at any time. Woo Seok-gyun, co-representative of the Humanitarian Physicians Association, raised the alarm that “a pandemic such as Corona 19 might have occurred once every 5 or 6 years, now it can only happen once every 2 or 3 years”. In our society, the most vulnerable to quarantine at the time of Corona 19 was the problem of treating seriously ill patients. Co-CEO Woo Seok-gyun said, “Even when the first to fourth epidemics and the delta omicron epidemic were combined, there was always a shortage of beds,” he said at the time. He continued, “Korea does not have a small number of hospital beds. Korea ranks second in OECD standards, saying, “I took issue with the lack of hospital beds to cope with the corona virus. The number of hospital beds in Korea ranks second in the world following Japan. On the other hand, the proportion of public health beds to fight infectious diseases is 9.7%, the lowest in the OECD. In the end, when the number of patients increases, we have no choice but to seek help from private hospitals. However, if private hospitals refuse to mobilize beds, there is no way to sanction them. At that time, we eventually promised to raise the medical fee to private hospitals and secured insufficient beds, but Kim Yoon, a professor of medical management at Seoul National University College of Medicine, said, “Last Corona, I paid 5 to 10 times the cost of treatment to buy a bed.” “That’s not the system.” . More than 20,000 people have lost their lives to COVID-19. It is impossible to predict what kind of epidemic will strike in the future. However, I hope it will serve as an opportunity to improve our medical system with a strong constitution so that we can be prepared for any infectious disease.