Sometimes truth is as scary as fiction.

I am so glad my most sexually promiscuous years were in the 70's and that I live away from major population centers and that I am straight. If I were out and about these days I'd feel like I needed a full body condom. LOL My employees probably think I do anyway but for other reasons.

Yay, superbugs.

Come on, we've still got 4 years until the end of the world.

@aspiringexpatriate: Well fuck it then, carpe diem!

Virgins will inherent the earth. Go Virgins !

@hn333: A world without sex is a world I wouldn't want to live in.

I'm not touching anyone ever again.

Saying that this is primarily a gay men's disease or sexually transmitted disease is incredibly dangerous. Anyone can get staph, especially this kind. Remember two years ago when California has a bacteria outbreak at nail salons? It might not have been staph, but you want to make sure your nail salon is Howard Hughes clean.

If you've been living in Virginia you've been fearing MRSA for a while

Dick rot!

If I was a conspiracy theorist - and I'm not, I'm more of a conspiracy hobbyist - I could come up with a whopper with this. But, Occam's Razor, it's probably just funny ol' God, that murderous prankster.

I'm just a Theorist. (french pronunciashawn)

@kaosdevice:
I'm afraid to touch myself. :(

This is happening in Philadelphia, too. But, then again, know one cares about Philadelphia... not like stupid stuck up San Fran and BOSTON.

I'm not bitter.

RAGINGTOWERS: "If you've been living in Virginia you've been fearing MRSA for a while"

Sounds like a license plate slogan to me.

@RagingTowers: If you've been living in England you've probably been suffering from it for a while.

"Saying that this is primarily a gay men's disease or sexually transmitted disease is incredibly dangerous."

Well, if you read the report and the other research papers you'll find that it is also true to an alarming extent. Indeed, the researchers are at pains to keep from saying that, but their numbers, statistics, case studies keep telling that tale. Others reporting this story, notably a radio report on NPR last night, were also bending over backwards to stay away from this conclusion -- citing an 81 year olf grandmother as their sign off.

The initial studies also tiptoe around the transmission of this disease via anal sex because that is also sort of taboo to mention. All very delicately done. You might thing it might just be something in the water.

I recall that when aids first began to be discussed one of the initial reactions of a lot of people in the gay community -- especially San Francisco -- resisted closing the bath house -- a major vector for the disease -- because of the "stigma." Result? Same stigma and a lot of gay men died too.

Again, the really dangerous things when it comes to the sources and origins of disease is to hide the truth. That's what really kills.

Everyone stock up on shotguns and chainsaws.

I'm not kidding when I say this, but this may very well be the beginning of the end of the world... and I'm only just now 17.

What a world...well, maybe it's for the best. I wouldn't mind a huge fucking asteroid right about now, although that isn't how the human race will become extinct. We'll die out slowly and painfully. Fates gonna draw this out for as long as possible.

But really...I guess you could say we deserve it.

God what's happening.

AAAHHHHH!!!!!!

I'm so glad I don't like touching people.

And also that I don't usually have sex. :P

@technobee: A couple of months back, it was discovered that aids arrived in the US through people emigrating from Haiti, which previously came from africa. You can imagine what that would have done to the south if it would have spread a little bit more.

So, let me get this straight.
You get infected with the bug and it rots away your skin. Who's going to neck and smooch you then?
This infection will stop itself.
We can just burn the ones with the "mark of sex".

And, oh, this is another one of those "Gay diseases", so we probably want to burn a couple of those gays aswell.

And, for those of you not heavily into sarcasm, I'm not to fond of media attributing diseases to a specific demo when it has the ability to affect anyone.

Time to start touching myself again.

@dirtybacon: Hey, I care about Philadelphia. And to think, I was going to start dating again. Maybe not so much...

.

... Dick ... Cheney

... and I mean that.

awesome. the fact that it will probably soon cross into the entire general population is yet one more reason to not make out with that guy across the bar.
the first reason being that his skin is falling off his face.

@Katana_Mind: What's wrong with the media reporting the group/groups most affected or at risk from a certain disease? If I were a gay man living in one of those cities, I would want to know that I was at a greater risk than anyone else. To not report such statistics would be irresponsible.

Oh God, I was hoping that this would be some tongue-in-cheek sci-fi thing.

"Durr durr durr It's only for Gays!" Now where have I heard THAT before?

Well this story is partially accurate. The strain of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus mentioned is in fact resistant to many antibiotic but not ALL as this hyperbolic article states. This strain remains susceptible to a very accessible and "old" antibiotic--Bactrim--as well as several others. Also, this infection is still quite rare compared to other common STDs. So, don't cancel your date on Friday night...just check for sores...

Here is a real article about the bacteria...
[www.sfgate.com]

@DoctorLou: Even the story you cite from the Chron states that the bacteria is resistant to virtually all antibiotics, and is about to become resistant to the only one they can currently treat it with. An actual doctor quoted in that article, instead of one with "doctor" as part of her internet name, says the bacteria is "virtually untreatable." How's that for hyperbolic?

As you'd expect, the comment stream at the SFGate article is a battleground of hysteria, misinformation, and mind-eating bacteria.

@Gann:
Because it has very little to do with anything.
If this malady affects anyone and not someone with a certain genetic makeup or a specific gender all you do when targeting a certain demo as the "source" of an outbreak is attatch stigma. And, if you're specifically talking about such a lambasted group as the HBT-gang [homo-, bi-, trans-] don't you think that this might play right into the hands of all the people that had issues with that group to begin with?
And for what?

All I'm saying is, that if this "outbreak" occurred somewhere in a white suburban area, do you think it had been reported as if it came from a homogenous group?
"White Christians carry flesh-eating virus!"

It i-s a headline I'd like to see, but, it doesn't seem likely.

@Annalee: I am a doctor...thanks.

I was about to go on a date on Friday......I dont want my Little Willy to rot away....