Focusing information on risky practices – physical contact with an infected person – and not on people’s sexual orientation is key to communicating what is happening with monkeypox without stigmatizing any group, specialists on this declared disease said global health emergency.
“The challenge to carry out communication without stigma when we talk about communicable diseases has to do with identifying what the risk practices are, regardless of that concept that is associated with the beginnings of HIV, which is that of risk groups”told Télam Leandro Cahn, Executive Director of the Huésped Foundation, which for more than 33 years has been a reference in communication about the HIV pandemic from a rights perspective.
And he continued: “It is the practices that determine the risk: in the case of HIV, unprotected sexual intercourse and in the case of monkeypox, it is not yet defined whether there is sexual transmission, but it is clear that it is in the physical contact that occurs during sexual intercourse.
98% of reported cases in the current outbreak of monkeypox worldwide are men who have sex with men, and 41% of those who have acquired the disease in recent months are people living with HIV.
“This creates a challenge of how to communicate about this population that is obviously at increased risk without leaving stigmatization behind, and the answer is that: talking about practices,” Cahn said.
In this sense, the political scientist also stressed that “it is important to support the language that we have learned from the media to avoid stigmatizing, that the only thing that generates is the opposite of the response sought, which in this case would be better prevention, an alert and early consultation with the health system when symptoms appear”.
“When we fall into a stigmatizing communication, what we generate is the opposite: increase risk practices and delay consultation,” he said.
And he added that “in addition, it is essential to listen to the voice of the communities, understanding that they are fundamental actors and actresses in the response to prevent the spread of the virus.”
“When we fall into a stigmatizing communication what we generate is the opposite: increase risk practices and delay consultation”Leander Cahn
In the same sense, the Minister of Health, Carla Vizzotti, said on Thursday in an interview in which Télam participated that “it is important to understand that contagion occurs through physical contact with an infected personit has nothing to do with sexual orientation or gender identity and this is key because otherwise those people who are not men who have sex with men will think that they cannot be infected and this is not the case.
Daniel Coso, an activist for 100% Diversity and Rights, also argued that “it is important to focus on behavior and not on the diagnosed population; what we know today is that it is skin-to-skin contact, no matter what sexual orientation you have.” .
This week, the Argentine LGBT+ Federation issued a statement in which it also drew attention to how to communicate the news regarding monkeypox.
“With the experience that the LGBT+ community went through with the ‘AIDS pandemic’, during the 1980s and 1990s, we want to alert the Ministry of Health of the Nation about the stigma that LGBT+ people suffered in those years as the ‘main propagators of infections’ and that today is taken up with stigmatizing speeches from the WHO and some media”they pointed out.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has also produced guidance on responsible communication (https://www.cdc.gov/poxvirus/monkeypox/reducing-stigma.html).
Among the first points it mentions: “Promote messages that provide information on what monkeypox is and how it can be spread and encourage seeking medical attention if you experience symptoms similar to those of monkeypox” and “emphasize that anyone can contract monkeypox”. monkeypox and promote it as a public health problem for all.
“Focusing on cases among gay and bisexual men may inadvertently stigmatize this population and create a false sense of security among those who are not gay and bisexual men,” they said.
Monkeypox was declared an international health emergency by the World Health Organization (WHO) on July 23; Currently, 22,054 cases and 11 deaths have been reported in 85 countries in 6 regions.
In the Region of the Americas, in the last seven days, 6,785 cases were reported in 19 countries or territories, the majority in the United States, Brazil, Peru, and Canada (representing an increase of 79.9% in one week).
99.2% of cases are in men and 81% are between 25 and 45 years old.
