A Health Warning for the Deaf Gay Community

This afternoon during lunch, I passed an important New York Times health news story about a drug resistant MRSA strain spreading in the gay communities of San Francisco and Boston to a fellow blogger, the Deaf Sherlock. His reaction? He screamed at me on the IM. Big capital letters, and for good reason.

Don't let the title of the New York Times article, "New Bacteria Strain is Striking Gay Men," make you think you are perfectly safe. As it happened before with AIDS, this bacteria could spread into the deaf (and hearing) community at large. Not only that, the Times said that the strain has "spread rapidly" and could quickly go national.

Remember how many deaf people were uninformed about AIDS/HIV and some died as a result of this lack of understanding and awareness? This ignorance has continued to some degree, as noted in a Time magazine article from June 24, 2001. History could repeat itself with this which is why I am sounding the alarm now along with the Deaf Sherlock.

We all need to be aware of this, but the deaf gay community especially needs to be aware because the disease is striking their community first. Already, according to the Times, one in 588 residents of the Castro district of San Francisco is infected with this resistant MRSA strain.

How can deaf gay and non-gay people protect themselves from this MRSA strain? The New York Times did not say how, but common sense and precautions against MRSA probably applies here. Limit the number of sexual partners, practice safe sex, and keep any cuts covered up.

Addendum: I just found this blog on HIV and deaf. Hasn't been updated since August 2007, but still worth checking out.