In Salt Lake County, health officials consulted with advocacy groups and decided to get the message out to gay and bisexual men without making the message about them. It's something never recognized before in outbreaks of the virus. cases in which the sexual behavior of the patient is known, all but one involve men who have sex with men, mirroring trends in Europe.
As the United States confronts its largest-ever monkeypox outbreak, with nearly 50 probable cases, public health authorities navigate a delicate but familiar balancing act. It's not just Utah officials who are struggling to find the right message. Subscribe to The Post Most newsletter for the most important and interesting stories from The Washington Post. But they feared unintended consequences: heterosexuals assuming they're not susceptible, closeted men in a heavily Mormon community avoiding care so they're not seen as gay, and critics exploiting the infections to sow bigotry. They wanted to warn men who have sex with men that they were at higher risk for exposure to the virus.
Officials in the Utah county faced a dilemma. Monkeypox had arrived in Salt Lake County, with two men testing positive after returning from Europe, the epicenter of a global outbreak concentrated in gay and bisexual men.
