If you haven’t heard, there’s a health scare down in the States right now, primarily centred on gay men. An outbreak of meningitis is going around in the gay male community, allegedly thanks to the recent White Party, and Toronto Public Health is here to remind you that if you’re planning on heading to NYC (or LA, where a recent fatal case was documented) you should probably get the meningitis vaccine just to be safe.
Toronto Public Health is urging men who have sex with other men to get vaccinated for a serious disease if they are planning on travelling to New York City.
An ongoing outbreak of meningococcal disease serogroup C has been occurring among gay and bisexual men in New York. Since 2010, 22 cased have been reported, seven of which have resulted in death. Twelve of the men infected with the disease were HIV-positive, five of whom died.
AdvertisementFour cases have been reported in New York this year so far. [SOURCE]
The bad news: meningitis can be fatal. The good news is that, thankfully, this can all be prevented if you take the necessary precautions. Yay, modern medicine! Although the additional bad news is that this is going to give your hypochondriac mother one more thing to worry about. Joy.
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