Madrid, Spain | AFP | In Spain, which is experiencing the largest outbreak of monkeypox in the world, the lack of vaccines is leading part of the gay community, the most affected, to change their sexual habits, practicing abstinence or limiting the number of sexual partners.
“This monkey thing has been unleashed too much, I prefer to be taking care of myself a little until I get vaccinated and have a little immunity,” says Antonio, a 35-year-old from Madrid who did not want to give his last name and who admits to having radically changed his habits.
This thirtysomething, who often liked to go to nightclubs and sometimes to sex parties, stopped doing so when he saw the evolution of the epidemic in his country.
Spain, with 3,738 cases according to the latest report from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the first two deaths in Europe, is the most affected country in the world, ahead of the United States (3,478).
But the Spanish Ministry of Health has counted many more cases, 4,298 as of this Saturday.
Antonio is so worried that “in Pride I didn’t do anything,” he says, laughing nervously.
Before going on vacation abroad, Pablo (name changed), 38, also avoided “risky situations to try not to contract” the disease.
“What I did was refrain from going to sex venues, refrain from having sex,” he explains.
This thirty-year-old who works in the pharmaceutical industry and does not have a regular partner explains that the risk is greater in sex venues where “you don’t even know what they are called or anything, so you can’t tell them either.”
This predisposition to chastity seems to be quite widespread in the LGBT community, as confirmed by other men whom AFP interviewed, but who declined to give their testimony due to the sensitivity of this topic.
The WHO has advised “men who have sex with men” to reduce the number of sexual partners they have, so that they “can contact them” if they develop symptoms and so that they can isolate themselves.
The organization launched its highest level of alert on July 23 to try to control the disease.
In Spain, local associations made this call even before the WHO.
Vaccine shortage
“It’s not like covid, the vaccine is already there, you don’t have to invent it (…) If it weren’t a ‘faggot’ disease, surely much more and much faster action would be taken,” says Antonio.
Like other members of the gay community, he believes the authorities have not taken into account the dimension of the problem.
The NGOs denounce the lack of prevention, the shortage of vaccines and the stigmatization.
It took Antonio three weeks to get an appointment to get vaccinated and he had to log in every day at midnight on the official website.
“You have to run to catch them,” like it’s “the next Beyoncé concert,” says another man.
To date, Spain has only received the first 5,300 doses that arrived at the end of June.
When AFP contacted the Spanish Ministry of Health, it declined to comment on the matter.
just like AIDS
For Nahum Cabrera, from the FELGTBI+ federation, it is urgent to vaccinate the people at greatest risk –not just homosexuals–, that is, “people who frequent places with sexual matters, partner exchange places, LGTB saunas” .
“We do not want to generate a false security within the heterosexual population because the disease is exposed to all people,” he points out.
In his opinion, the age group to which vaccination should be directed is between 18 and 46 years of age because Spain was already vaccinated against smallpox until the 1970s, when the virus had not yet disappeared from Europe.
“We are experiencing a health emergency (…) within the LGTB community and it seems that it is a minority,” says Iván Zaro, vice president of the NGO Imagina MÁS
“The same thing happens or happened 40 years ago with HIV,” he says.
Javier spent three days in hospital in early July after becoming infected.
After his three weeks of isolation, he is raising awareness in those around him.
“I warn everyone, ‘I have this, be careful.’ This is an infectious disease,” he recalls.
The 32-year-old cinematographer, who lives in a monogamous relationship and doesn’t know how he got it, says the disease “can be caught by anyone.”
