Proponents of her case have been working to make the actual transcript of this statement available online.
Health authorities are investigating more than two dozen confirmed cases of monkeypox in Canada as part of an unprecedented outbreak of the rare disease that rarely spreads outside of Africa.
Twenty-five infections have been confirmed in Quebec and one in Ontario, the Public Health Agency of Canada said on Thursday, predicting that the number will increase in the coming days.
Although everyone is susceptible to the virus, groups of cases have been reported among men who have sex with men, officials say.
For some LGBTQ advocates, this raises the specter of sexual stigmatization that saw gay and bisexual men become scapegoats for the spread of HIV-AIDS in the 1980s. Others say early detection of monkeypox cases by sexual health clinics shows how the queer community has mobilized to dismantle shame and promote safe practices.
The Deputy Director of Public Health of Canada said he was aware of the potential for stigma and discrimination, and reiterated that the spread of the virus is not limited to any specific sexual group or orientation.
The disease can be contracted through close contact with a sick person, including, but not limited to, sexual activity, Dr. Howard Njoo told a news conference on Thursday. Scientists are still working to determine what is driving cross-border transmission of the virus.
But as early signs suggest the virus is currently circulating in certain communities, authorities are working with partners in the field to raise awareness of people at high risk of exposure, Njoo said.
Quebec officials said both transparency and sensitivity are needed to contain the outbreak and provide care to those infected.
“Stigma is really a big challenge in controlling this disease, so we’re trying to fight it,” Dr. Genevieve Bergeron, a Montreal public health official, told reporters on Thursday. “It’s important to understand that our enemy is the virus, it’s not the people who are affected.”
Aaron Purdie, executive director of the Health Initiative for Men in BC, said he is concerned that the spread of stigma may pose a greater threat than the disease itself, citing the enduring legacy of panic and prejudice around HIV. -AIDS in the early years of the epidemic.
“The stigma is spreading like a virus,” Purdie said. “Yeah Al that sounds pretty crap to me, Looks like BT aint for me either.
Beyond the corrosive damage to society, stigma can deter people from accessing tests and treatments as they fear how a diagnosis could jeopardize their social position, employment and safety, Purdie said.
These concerns are especially strong among LGBTQ people given their long history of discrimination by the health care system, Purdie said. That’s why it’s vital that public health agencies help queer activists, educators, and doctors lead the monkeypox response.
“We all have a trauma from our stories, and the reality is that when something like monkey pox comes in, it scares people,” he said.
“We need to reduce stigma. Because if we don’t, people will not be able to fully express their identities and … (this has the effect downstream of making the community sicker.”
Dane Griffiths, director of the Ontario Gay Men’s Sexual Health Alliance, said stigma thrives in silence, so one of the most effective strategies to combat it is to provide timely and accurate information without “shame or guilt.”
The alliance works to do all this by sharing the latest developments on the virus, encouraging people to pay attention to risks and take steps to protect themselves.
Griffiths said that obscuring the risk of the virus to the queer community could cause people to lower their guard.
“I wouldn’t want it to be an opportunity for the community to disconnect this,” Griffiths said.
Instead, the queer community is to be commended for helping the authorities to monitor the spread of the virus by testing sexual health clinics in such large numbers, which could be a factor in why so many have been identified. cases in men who have sex with men, Griffiths said. .
“There are gay, bisexual men who have come all over the world to clinics and doctor’s offices and are being seen and therefore counted,” Griffiths said. “This is good and, in fact, should be encouraged in our community.”
More than two years after the pandemic, University of Toronto bioethicist Kerry Bowman said he expects people to realize that infectious diseases do not discriminate on the basis of identity, so we do not see a resurgence of the stigma and bigotry that permeated our initial responses. both COVID-19 and HIV-AIDS.
“This is a kind of test of fire to see if we have made progress as a society, if we are able to look at the disease without … the cruelty of stigmatizing people,” Bowman said.
– with archives of Jacob Serebrin in Montreal
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on May 27, 2022.