MRSA BACTERIA STRIKING HOMOSEXUAL MEN: Disease spread primarily through anal intercourse.

A new medical study appearing in the Annals of American Medicine shows that homosexuals are spreading a new, highly-infectious flesh-necrotic bacteria amongst themselves, most probably through anal intercourse.

The bacterium, called MRSA USA300, is impervious to front-line antibiotics and can only be treated with rarer drugs, primarily Vancomycin. 

Researchers say that the staphylococcus is primed to develop immunity to that drug as well. Infected patients may have inflammation, abscesses, and tissue loss in the affected areas.  The bacterium manufactures toxins that can cause necrosis.

The study's authors note that unhealthy behavior, particularly among homosexuals, is the driving force behind the disease.

"Spread of the USA300 clone among men who have sex with men is associated with high-risk behaviors, including use of methamphetamine and other illicit drugs, sex with multiple partners, participation in a group sex party, use of the internet for sexual contacts, skin-abrading sex, and history of sexually transmitted infections," the authors write.

"The same patterns of increased sexual risk behaviors among men who have sex with men - which have resulted from changes in beliefs regarding HIV disease severity with the availability of potent antiretroviral therapy - have been driving resurgent epidemics of early syphilis, rectal gonorrhea, and new HIV infections in San Francisco, Boston, and elsewhere," add the researchers. 

The study, which focused on clinics in the San Francisco area, found that in some cases up to 39% of patients had the MRSA USA300 infections in their genitals or buttocks, although the disease can be spread by general skin-to-skin contact and can even be picked up from surfaces.

Observing that "Infection with multi-drug-resistant USA300 MRSA is common among men who have sex with men," the study timidly concludes that "multi-drug-resistant MRSA infection might be sexually transmitted in this population," and counsels "further research." 

It is estimated that in San Francisco's Castro District, which has the highest concentration of homosexuals in the country, the infection rate is 1 in every 588 residents.

Homosexuals are 13 times more likely to be infected than others in the city.

MRSA and other types of staphylococcus bacteria, often spread in hospitals, kill more than 19,000 Americans each year, a rate higher than deaths due to AIDS.