Re: Life after LGBTQIA+ monkeypox: Men describe an uncertain road to recovery - RACIST NBC PORTRAYS WHITE MALES.

[Lock Them Up!]

In article <sn19k8$q55$3...@news.dns-netz.com>
<governo...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> ...Queers should not be allowed near children.
> LGBTQIA+ monkeypox is a fucking gay disease, so stop lying about it.
>

98% of the infected faggots are black males. Racist NBC implies
all of the faggots are white.

Over a dozen men who contracted monkeypox talked to NBC News
about their recovery and the lingering effects of the skin
lesion-causing virus.

During the four months of the monkeypox outbreak, health care
providers, researchers and an anxious public have scrambled to
determine how the virus transmits, how to prevent it and how the
infection plays out in the body.

Little attention has been paid to what comes after the infection
clears.

Following recovery from this skin lesion–causing virus, people
often find themselves waiting anxiously over the course of
months to see whether monkeypox will leave them with permanent
scarring. And in interviews with more than a dozen people who
have had the virus and as many health care providers and
researchers, NBC News learned that in some people, the lingering
scars are not only physical but psychological. Troublingly, it’s
also possible the virus could cause permanent damage to
sensitive internal tissues and give rise to persistent pain or
other onerous long-term symptoms.

“Just because you’re cleared and no longer contagious, it
doesn’t mean you’re totally back to normal,” said Matt Ford, 30,
a bicoastal actor who contracted the virus at the beginning of
the summer and hopes that his scarring, including pockmarks on
his face, will continue to dissipate. “It did a number on my
body, especially in more sensitive areas.”

Unfortunately, people looking to doctors or health agencies for
answers about what to expect post-pox are typically met with an
information vacuum. This is the result of the notorious dearth
of research conducted prior to the outbreak about a virus that
until this spring largely only circulated in western and central
Africa.

“I just want there to be more concrete information, but maybe
that’s asking too much,” said Brad, 33, a New York City area
resident who preferred to use only his first name to protect his
medical privacy.

In an emailed statement, the New York City health commissioner,
Dr. Ashwin Vasan, acknowledged this lack of health guidance,
saying, “It’s still early in the outbreak and the kinds of long-
term studies needed to understand these issues better have not
been completed yet. We continue to learn from what people who’ve
experienced infection and recovery are reporting.”

Since the unprecedented global outbreak was first detected by
health authorities in mid-May, 65,415 cases have been diagnosed
worldwide, 24,846 of them in the United States, the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention reports. While the weekly case
count both nationally and worldwide has declined in recent
weeks, raising hopes that the outbreak might be brought under
control, concerns remain that at least a fraction of those who
have had the virus might suffer long-term impacts of the
infection.

Cosmetic concerns
For gay men, who comprise the overwhelming share of global
monkeypox cases and among whom the competitiveness to look good
is famously Olympian, worry over sustaining noticeable scarring
in the wake of the infection can be particularly taxing.

“Especially for people who already have body dysmorphia or are
hypersensitive to how others see them, there is this
hypervigilance” of such cosmetic effects, said Preston Wholly,
managing clinical director of behavioral health services at the
LGBTQ-focused nonprofit health care provider Harlem United in
New York City.

The marks are also signals of an infection that because it
largely transmits through sex between men, can be highly
stigmatized.

“I think it’s important to be aware of the effect of stigma
regarding the route of monkeypox transmission, at-risk groups
and disfiguring skin lesions — all of which could contribute to
psychological distress,” said Dr. James Badenoch, a physician at
the Queen Mary University of Medicine in London and the co-lead
author of a paper published Sept. 8 in eClinicalMedicine on
neurological and psychiatric conditions linked to monkeypox.

Harun Tulunay, 35, was hospitalized with a particularly severe
case of the virus in July. In addition to experiencing extreme
proctitis, or inflammation of the rectal tissues, and an
inability to swallow, he developed an atypically large purple-
black lesion that covered his entire left nostril. The lesion
has since healed but has left behind pockmarked scar tissue.

“I am very obsessed with the little scar on my nose and am using
lots of creams, scared it won’t go away,” said Tulunay, who,
like a substantial proportion of people who contract monkeypox,
has HIV.

Dr. Howa Yeung, an assistant professor of dermatology at the
Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, said that while
guidance on care for monkeypox lesions may be lacking, what is
known about treating smallpox, which like monkeypox belongs to
the orthopoxvirus family, can serve as a guide.

Yeung recommended the use of what are known as hydrocolloid
dressings on lesions, which help keep them moist and promote
healing while minimizing scarring. For thicker scars, silicone
gel or patches may help improve their appearance, he
said—especially if such treatment is started shortly after the
scabs fall off. Later on, lasers and microneedling may further
improve their appearance, although such interventions can be
expensive.

The dermatologist noted that people with darker skin tones are
likely at higher risk of monkeypox lesions leaving lasting dark
marks, which he estimated could take three to 12 months to fade.

“Some scars will be permanent,” Yeung said.

He advised the use of skin-lightening agents, which a
dermatologist can prescribe, as well as a high SPF sunscreen to
keep the sun from further darkening the pigment.

Gerald Febles, 25, reported grappling with such marks, which,
although they have been improving, still greatly bother him.
Hoping they will recede over the coming months, he’s tried
various scar-treatment creams, which don’t come cheap.

“I was very confident in my own skin before,” said Febles, who
is an employee relations manager for the urgent care company
MedRite. He said he now has “a lot more insecurity about my body
in general. I’ve even gone to bars and some people have asked,
‘Oh, what’s that on your neck?’ So it’s something I’m reminded
of whether or not it’s on my own terms.”

Febles was keen to assert that he sees no reason to be ashamed
of having had monkeypox. But recalling that the infection caused
him excruciating pain, he nevertheless characterized such
questions from people as “a trauma trigger.”

The potential for lasting damage
Proctitis, experienced by 1 in 4 people with the virus in a
Spanish study and 16% of U.S. cases about which the CDC has
data, is one of the most devastating potential monkeypox
symptoms. It can cause excruciating pain, in particular when
defecating. What’s more, such symptoms might portend longer-term
consequences of the infection.

During a July 14 Infectious Diseases Society of America call
with reporters, Dr. Mary Foote, a medical epidemiologist at New
York City’s health department, raised an early alarm that
monkeypox lesions might cause permanent internal damage in some
people. This, she said, could include the formation of scar
tissue or strictures in the anorectal or urethral tissues, which
could affect bodily functioning.

“It’s quite concerning,” Foote said of these potential outcomes,
which she recently told NBC News might prompt the need for
surgery or other interventions.

Dr. Boghuma Titanji, an infectious disease specialist at Emory
University, reported seeing urethral damage or overall pain in
the penis, including difficulty retracting the foreskin, due to
scarring from monkeypox.

“When we see these cases with urologic involvement, we consult
urologists,” Titanji said, noting that “early urinary
catheterization and other interventions may prevent
complications down the line.”

Brian Rice, 43, reported suffering from a host of bothersome
health problems, including the flu, since recovering from
monkeypox in mid-August. Having endured penile pain, swelling
and discharge during the infection, the attorney has since
experienced pain in his pelvic area and the frequent need to
urinate. These symptoms eventually resolved themselves, Rice
said, following pelvic floor myofascial release treatments. But
he’s also experienced a persistent rash in his pubic area that
is only recently starting to clear up.

“Nobody knows whether these other symptoms I’m experiencing are
related in any way to monkeypox,” said Rice, who is HIV positive
and lives in Cliffside Park, New Jersey. “It could be stress and
anxiety; it could just be triggering other things.”

Dr. Peter Shalit, who runs an LGBTQ-focused primary-care medical
practice in Seattle, reported that one of his patients had a
mild case of monkeypox in July, with only skin lesions. Then, in
August, the man relapsed and suffered from worse disease
symptoms, including proctitis. Three weeks after recovering the
second time, his rectal symptoms returned once more, causing him
severe pain. Shalit treated both the second and third waves with
the antiviral TPOXX, which appeared effective at battling
symptoms.

The eClinicalMedicine paper published this month reported that
in rare cases people with monkeypox develop neurologic symptoms,
including encephalitis, confusion or seizures.

“Encephalitis can cause long-term problems with disability, mood
and memory problems,” said Dr. Jonathan Rogers, a psychiatrist
at University College London and a co-lead author of the paper.
He stressed, however, that he and his coauthors don’t have the
necessary follow-up data to determine any extended effects of
this condition among people who have recovered from monkeypox.

The CDC reported Sept. 13 the cases of two previously healthy
men in their 30s who after contracting monkeypox developed
encephalomyelitis, or inflammation of the brain and spinal cord.
The men have recovered from the infection, but a month after the
start of their neurologic symptoms, they each still require an
assistive device to walk.

A difficult transition
Arriving during the Covid crisis denouement, the monkeypox
outbreak has triggered pandemic-related anxieties that had only
recently begun to abate, by sending people with the virus right
back into isolation for the few weeks the infection takes to
resolve. And as they grapple with recovering from such a
stigmatized virus, many of those who spoke with NBC News said it
has taken time for them to regain their confidence and calm
within the outside world — be that interacting with colleagues,
seeing friends and family, or getting back into dating and
sexual intimacy.

These people report having a particularly difficult time
disentangling the misery of monkeypox from the joys of sex.

“I just feel like I lost my mojo,” said Harun Tulunay, who,
similar to Febles, finds men constantly striking up
conversations with him about monkeypox, especially given how
much media coverage his case received.

“They don’t seem much interested in dating me after,” he said,
ruefully.

In the meantime, Tulunay, who is a training and volunteer
coordinator at the HIV nonprofit Positively UK, is trying to get
his semen tested to determine if he might still harbor the
virus. Monkeypox has indeed been found in seminal fluid, and the
World Health Organization has recommended that men wear condoms
for 12 weeks following recovery from monkeypox out of concern,
pending further research, that the virus might remain in semen
and be transmissible for that long.

John Farrey, 32, said what he missed most while isolating with
monkeypox was going out dancing with friends. So he thought he’d
be jazzed to jump right back onto the dance floor once he
recovered.

But, the Brooklyn tech worker said, “I felt very terrified of my
own skin” during the immediate aftermath of his infection. Being
around other people, he said, “still felt unsafe.”

“It really took me a long time to be comfortable having close
contact again,” Farrey said.

For Brad, the New Yorker, having monkeypox was “totally
traumatic,” sending him off-kilter emotionally. He’s been
struggling to regain his equilibrium since then. A scar on his
penis has made him self conscious and has caused him to worry
that sexual partners will ask intrusive questions about it.

“Then it’s ‘bye-bye mood,’” Brad quipped of such a scenario.

“I’m still kind of afraid of sex, because my last sexual
experience resulted in this, and it still carries so much
weight,” he said of contracting monkeypox. “Sometimes it turns
into this source of shame that I’ve never experienced before
about sex.”

Then there’s the question of when the body is once again ready
for the rigors of intercourse. Proctitis, said Dr. Chris Beyrer,
director of the Duke University Global Health Institute, “is
going have a very big impact on subsequent sexual functioning”
for those who engage in receptive anal sex.

“I think the question is: ‘When have you sufficiently healed?’”
Breyer said—which, he acknowledged, “is not a question that
people have good answers for.”

The importance of support
Given the traumatic ripple effects that monkeypox can unleash,
experts highlight the need to provide people who contract the
virus with support that doesn’t end when the scabs clear up.

“The anguish experienced by many patients cannot be
underestimated. It can be a truly horrible time,” Dr. Hans
Kluge, regional director of WHO Europe, said at an Aug. 30 news
conference about monkeypox. He called for buttressing “both the
physical and mental health of patients during the entire course
of the disease, and after. It remains of critical importance.”

Harlem United’s Preston Wholly said he works with his clients
who have contracted the virus to cut through the harmful stigma
tied to contracting monkeypox.

“We really want to process that it wasn’t their fault and work
through the guilt and shame and kind of normalize it,” he said.

Jeffrey Galaise, 41, who said he has persistent nightmares about
the infection —“I imagine myself having pox and pain,” he said —
is among the many people who have contracted the virus and then
established their own support networks. He founded a Zoom-based
monkeypox support group for people with the virus he met mainly
through social media. This outlet, he said, has been invaluable
as he tries to move on.

“I need to get back to my normal life,” said Galaise, who works
for a New York City governmental agency. “It has certainly been
a transition. I certainly think I’m getting there.”

Brad, who has also found a supportive community of others who
have had monkeypox through social media, said he yearns to have
the lingering physical and emotional effects of monkeypox behind
him.

“I would like there to be a day when I don’t worry about this
anymore,” he said. “I just want to be done with it.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-health-and-wellness/life-
monkeypox-men-describe-uncertain-road-recovery-rcna49195