New Brunswick’s first confirmed case of monkeypox came out just before the weekend — the same weekend most major centers will be celebrating Pride.
“Right now, what we’re seeing is that the majority of cases in Canada and globally are among men who have sex with men,” Dr. Jennifer Russell told CTV in an interview Saturday.
Fredericton’s Pride Committee wants everyone to stay vigilant about taking care of their health.
“Right now it’s basically being targeted as a freak issue, but unfortunately it’s a virus and viruses don’t care,” said John Ortiz, chair of the Fredericton Pride committee. Big events are fine because they have to be intimate and since there is no intimate contact during a dance… there is no possibility of transmission.
“We should be concerned because this is not a particular community or a particular man or woman, but a personal problem, and so everyone should be concerned if they want to have intimate relationships with people they may or may not know,” he added.
In New Brunswick, vaccinations have so far been reserved for close contacts of cases and positive cases.
Locally, LGBTQ+ people fear that the messages appear to target the queer community, similar to previous messages about HIV/AIDS.
“I’m older and I remember being a teenager in the ’80s, it was always aimed at the gay community, but again, it was something that spread not because you were gay, but because you were in an intimate relationship,” Ortiz said.
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