A human rights organization in Ghana, Rectify Ghana, has raised concerns over a recent report that indicated that a higher number of people contracting the Monkeypox disease in the world are from the LGBTQ+ fraternity.
The report, attributed to Dr. Emmanuel Addipa-Adapoe, a member of the COVID-19 management team in the Greater Accra Region, stated that over 90% of recovered cases of monkeypox in the world, especially in Europe, the Americas, and other places, are members of the LGBTQ.
According to him, monkeypox is on the rise in the LGBTQ community, which was not so previously.
“Now, hitherto, we thought it was just transmitted to humans from animals, and man to man by direct contact through the respiratory droplets and then through contact with the body fluids of those animals or man. Now over 90% of the cases, especially in Europe, the Americas, and other places, unfortunately, members of the LGBTQ+ fraternity are the ones who are getting the infection, and therefore we have had to revise our books to include sexual transmission. Majority of those with Monkeypox right now are men having sex with men,†he stated.
But in a series of tweets shared by Rectify Ghana, it is surprising that the world now wants to blame the LGBTQ+ community for the spread of the new, deadly disease.
The group added that, should this blame game go on, it would harm everyone.
“It seems the world has not learnt anything from the AIDS and COVID-19 pandemics. Blaming LGBTQ persons for monkeypox will harm everyone. We need to address risks effectively without stigma. We must make it safe for people to report their symptoms, get tested and get care.
“If people who are infected are afraid of the stigma they could experience by coming forward, then transmission will go undetected — harming many individual bodies, as well as our collective public body,†it said in the tweets.
Source: Ghanaweb