Free Republic

The study found that 0.8% of same-sex patients with high-risk sexual activity were diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, while only 0.49 heterosexual men who engaged in high-risk sexual activity had Crohn’s disease. The research will enable the development of individualized, precision medicine for the management of inflammatory bowel disease in this underrepresented minority patient group. According to a recent study from Case Western Reserve University and University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center (UH), gay men are more than twice as likely as heterosexual males to develop inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) when both groups participate in high-risk sexual activity. The study was recently...

Gay men are more than twice as likely to develop inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) than heterosexual men when both populations engage in high-risk sexual activity. "To our knowledge, this is the first large population-based study that demonstrates a higher prevalence of IBD in men who engage in high-risk same-sex sexual activity," said Emad Mansoor. "Our study is expected to open a new field of research into gastrointestinal inflammatory conditions." "Studying the cause of IBD in this underrepresented patient population in comparison to other patient groups," said Fabio Cominelli, "will allow us to further investigate the cause of disease development in...

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week reported at least seven deaths among gay and bisexual men from the serious meningococcal disease outbreak in Florida and at least 24 cases of the disease. The agency described the situation in a news release as "one of the worst outbreaks of meningococcal disease among gay and bisexual men in U.S. history." While the CDC referenced those figures last Wednesday, data from the Florida Department of Health showed 44 cases of the disease in 16 counties in Florida as of Wednesday.

AS cases of meningitis, a rare and potentially fatal disease, popped up in cities nationwide over the past several years, public health officials noticed a trend: many of those infected were gay men. There’s no known medical reason why meningitis, which is transmitted through saliva, would spread more among gay and bisexual men. Yet New York, Chicago and now Southern California have experienced outbreaks disproportionately affecting that population. “It is perplexing,” said Dr. Rachel Civen, a medical epidemiologist at L.A. County’s Department of Public Health. Of the 13 cases of meningitis this year in L.A. County — excluding Long Beach,...

...Medical experts are observing the emergence of a relatively new strain [of Staph infections], known as community-acquired MRSA, among gay and bisexual men, athletes, prisoners and Native Americans. Since a staph outbreak among gay men in Los Angeles in early 2003, the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention identified five major factors that facilitate the transmission of the infection: close contact, crowding, cleanliness, contaminated items and surfaces, and compromised skin integrity, said Nicole Coffin, a CDC spokesperson. The compromised skin integrity category includes tiny abrasions that may occur during "manscaping" -- the cosmetic shaving of body parts popular with some...