Put another way, men who have sex with other men were found to be more susceptible to the virus compared to other people, simply because of who was currently infected and where, not due to biological properties of the virus. Transmission within such communities is largely due to human behavior and not how the virus itself behaves within infected people’s immune systems.Īs of this writing, monkeypox was spreading faster within some communities of men who have sex with other men, giving public health officials reason to issue public warnings to the LGBTQ community. As far as medical health experts are concerned, there is nothing about the monkeypox virus that targets gay or bisexual men over others.
One such case was the below-displayed Facebook post that likened monkeypox to AIDS and cited unknown sources that supposedly said “monkeypox is spread around ‘homosexual/gay men.'” case of 2022, after a Massachusetts man tested positive for the virus in May.Īs the virus spread outside of its endemic African range to regions it isn’t normally reported in - including North America and parts of Europe - the Snopes newsroom saw social media posts that inflated or twisted scientific facts about the disease to exaggerate its danger. Public health officials in Los Angeles confirmed what they believe to be the first known case of monkeypox in the state of California and at least the second U.S.