WHO calling for sex lockdown to fight pox

The world’s top public health agency has made the stark recommendation to shut down sex as monkeypox cases surge globally.

The World Health Organisation, which declared monkeypox a global health emergency just days ago, has now called for abstinence as the top way to protect against infection and “reduce the risk of exposure”.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press conference that “anyone exposed can get monkeypox” but that the group most affected should stop or reduce the amount of sex they’re having.

“For men who have sex with men, this includes, for the moment, reducing your number of sexual partners, reconsidering sex with new partners, and exchanging contact details with any new partners to enable follow-up if needed,” he said.

It is a stunning shift in messaging around the virus, with the WHO previously focusing on not stigmatising gay and bisexual men in the outbreak.

The turnaround to explicitly call for a sex shutdown comes after the WHO estimated as much as 98 per cent of cases came from men having sex with men.

The WHO has previously identified the initial outbreak of monkeypox to sex parties in Europe, with some of the earliest cases linked to a sex rave in Spain and a large-scale fetish festival in Belgium.

Since its discovery in Europe in early May, there have been more than 18,000 cases of monkeypox from 78 countries reported to WHO. Of those, 70 per cent of cases were reported in Europe and 25 per cent in the Americas.

Mr Ghebreyesus said about 10 per cent of those infected end up in hospital to manage pain, and five deaths have been reported since the start of the outbreak.

Infectious disease researchers in Italy and Germany also identified at least eight infected patients who contain the genetic material of monkeypox in their semen.

Italy’s Spallanzani Institute has found at least one of six patient samples had the capability of replicating and infecting another person.

The data is being submitted for publication, but Francesco Vaia, the institute’s general director, said it was not conclusive proof the virus had mutated. If confirmed, however, the findings would place monkeypox alongside HIV/AIDS, syphilis and chlamydia as a sexually transmitted disease spread through bodily fluids.

A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine last week found that 95 per cent of cases were transmitted through sexual activity, with symptoms including a blistering rash.

While Mr Ghebreyesus called for the gay sex slowdown, he stressed that “anyone exposed can get monkeypox”.