“NSW Health is urging people who have recently returned from overseas and have attended large parties or sex on premises venues to watch for symptoms.” “A large proportion of cases detected in Europe and North America are among gay, bisexual or men who have sex with men,” NSW Health said in its website monkeypox fact sheet, most recently updated on Thursday. Monkeypox is spread by close, skin-to-skin contact between any person - so the viral infection can be caught by anyone, but some local health authorities have made specific mention of sexual orientation. The body said infection came from close physical contact and “that risk is not limited in any way, to men who have sex with men”. “Experience shows that stigmatising rhetoric can quickly disable evidence-based response by stoking cycles of fear, driving people away from health services, impeding efforts to identify cases, and encouraging ineffective, punitive measures,” Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS ( UNAIDS) deputy executive director Matthew Kavanagh said. UN officials last week raised concerns about unnecessary stereotypes, highlighting a history of problematic stigma. Watch the latest News on Channel 7 or stream for free on 7plus >
