The Argentine LGBT+ group calls for general vaccination against monkey pox
Thursday, August 4, 2022 – 21:36 UTC All cases of monkeypox reported in Argentina “are male,” Health Ministry says
The Argentina LGBT+ Federation has launched an appeal to the national health authorities to start a national vaccination campaign for the entire population against monkey pox.
The group also called for health professionals to be properly trained on how to spot the disease.
The federation then called for prevention campaigns to be carried out “free of stigmatizing messages towards LGBT+ people”. According to reports from the World Health Organization (WHO) and other leading scientific institutions, almost 100% of smallpox cases had been found among “men who have sex with men”.
The WHO declared an international emergency due to the global spread of the disease.
“We ask the Minister of Health of the Nation, Carla Vizzotti, for the Ministry to start a vaccination campaign and incorporate the smallpox vaccine into the vaccination schedule, starting – also – its production in the country,” explained Flavia Massenzio, president of LGBT+ Argentina. Federation, he said.
“Monkey pox is primarily transmitted through direct and prolonged skin-to-skin contact with lesions produced by monkey pox. This can be through sexual intercourse, intimate contact such as kissing and hugging, or other physical contact such as sharing personal hygiene material or cutlery. We encourage the Ministry to carry out preventive campaigns without discrimination”, he added.
“There is a lot of information about it and there are also alarms that cause us concern. Information has already circulated indicating that “the infections only occurred among men who have sex with men”, the same thing that was intended (and at first succeeded) to enter the collective unconscious of the public with the HIV issue,” Massenzio. insisted.
“This was not the case, and with monkey pox it is not the case either: we are all exposed to contagion if we do not take the corresponding preventive measures,” continued the LGBT leader.
“For this reason, and with the experience that the LGBT+ collective had with the ‘AIDS pandemic’ during the 80s and 90s, we want to alert the Ministry of Health of the Nation about the stigma that assaulted people LGBT+ in those years as ‘main spreaders of infections’ and that today is resumed with stigmatizing speeches from the WHO and some media”, he pointed out.
All the cases reported in Argentina “are male, with an average age of 36 years, with cases with a maximum of 47 and a minimum of 24 years,” the Ministry of Health said in a statement.