New York health officials recommended meningitis vaccination to gay men in preparation of the upcoming gay pride event pointing out a possible outbreak of the infection.
Approximately 1 million people are expected to attend this big event and the officials would like to clarify that they were not confining the awareness campaign to gay people only as any gender could be affected. However, according to a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, gay men are 50 times at high risk compared to the rest of the population. Their analysis revealed that 22 gay men were infected in 2010 in New York City killing seven of them.
Among 22 cases, they also found out that 12 of them were positive with HIV. Another four were reported in L.A since December 2012. The average age of the patients was 34.
“It’s very understandable why people might draw links between HIV and this outbreak,” Jay Varma, deputy commissioner for disease control in the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, said in an interview with Bloomberg. “Both appeared at the beginning to be exclusively among men who have sex with men, both are associated with people dying. The main difference is, of course, in this situation we know exactly what is causing people to get sick.”
Once a person has HIV, he becomes more vulnerable to other diseases especially meningitis even if he is already under medication. The health officials are now planning to implement mandatory meningitis vaccination of HIV-positive people to protect them and the public as well.
The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene had been doing campaigns since October 2012 but still had reports of new meningitis cases. The last incident was February this year.
Meningitis is an inflammation of the membranes surrounding your brain and spinal cord. Common symptoms are headache, fever, and stiff neck and may be cured in a couple of weeks through antibiotics. According to the National Meningitis Association website, about 1,500 Americans were infected between 1998 and 2007. One out of seven infected dies.
