Monkeypox has officially hit the city of Atlanta and it has people all across the town worried that it may not just impact gay men . . . but Black women TOO.
On Thursday Media Take Out confirmed that the Fulton County Board of Health’s sexual health promotion director, Joshua O’Neal, called a town hall meeting, to talk about the explosion of Monkeypox in Atlanta.
The purpose of the meeting was to update the city in a responsible manner – and not push fear-based messaging when it comes to Monkeypox.
To help fight the spread Atlanta has been offered a limited amount of vaccines – but just 300, which were offered by appointment. Within four minutes of becoming available online however, all the vaccines were accounted for, O’Neal said.
According to the Centers For Disease Control, Monkeypox is not a sexually transmitted disease even though officials said almost all of Georgia’s now 158 cases were among men who have sex with men in the Atlanta area.
“I also think it’s really important to try to decrease the amount of stigma that’s happening with monkeypox, and recognize that this is not a gay disease,” O’Neal said. “I mean, it’s very similar to the same sort of narratives around HIV.”
And that’s exactly what many Black women who attended the town hall are worried about.
Media Take Out learned that many women in Atlanta are now fearful that Monkeypox – which can be transmitted s*xually – may move from the gay community . . . onto straight Black women, who have s*x with bis*xual men.
One woman who attended the event told Media Take Out, “This is exactly like what happened with HIV [in the 1980s and 1990s] it started out in gay men, then it jumped to Black women.
According to the CDC, nearly all Black women who are newly infected with HIV are infected either through intravenous drug use of heterosexual contact (80%). By contrast, the CDC reports that nearly all (73%) of Black men newly infected, contracted the disease through homosexual contact or drug use.
Here’s how the CDC claims that Monkeypox is transmitted:
[social_warfare]– Oral, an*l, and v*ginal s*x or touching the g*nitals (p*nis, t*sticles, lab*a, and v*gina) or an*s (b*tthole) of a person with monkeypox.
– Hugging, massage, and kissing.
– Prolonged face-to-face contact.
