How to have SEX with monkeypox: Bizarre CDC guide revealed

The CDC has issued bizarre guidance telling Americans infected with monkeypox to have sex by masturbating at least six feet away from their partner, among other recommendations.

Guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says anyone who has the disease must not have sex.

But for those who ignore the advice, the agency has published a bizarre list of the dos and donts under the bedsheets.

Among its tips was also to have sex while still fully-clothed, to ensure all rashes are covered and even to avoid kissing.

Other advice was to wash hands, fetish gear and clothes immediately afterwards and even to consider having sex virtually such as over the phone. 

People catch monkeypox by touching infectious skin lesions, but it can also be spread through the air during ‘sustained’ face-to-face contact.

It can take up to four weeks for anyone infected with monkeypox to recover from the disease, with about eight days needed from infection for symptoms to appear.

Another 12 monkeypox cases were recorded in America Wednesday, in the biggest day-on-day rise since the outbreak began taking the total to 85 cases.

Cases are currently told to isolate themselves or hospitalize, in an echo of the early Covid pandemic. 

Globally, there are more than 2,000 across about 40 countries outside of West Africa.

The CDC published its guidance on having sex with monkeypox earlier this month on its page on ‘social gatherings, safer sex, and monkeypox’. 

‘If you or a partner has monkeypox, the best way to protect yourself and others is to not have sex of any kind (oral, anal, vaginal) and not to kiss or touch each other’s body’s while you are sick, especially any rashes or sores,’ it reads.

‘[But] if you or your partner have (or think you might have monkeypox) and you decide to have sex, consider the following to reduce the chance of spreading the virus.’

The guidance carries echoes of Canadian health chiefs recommendation in the first year of the Covid pandemic that people use glory holes to have sex.

The British Columbia Center for Disease Control said people should ‘use barriers, like walls (e.g. glory holes), that allow for sexual contact but prevent close face-to-face contact.’

A glory hole is a small opening cut into a wall that allows someone to have sex with as little skin-to-skin contact as possible.

In 2020 New York City health chiefs also issued advice on how to have sex without catching Covid, telling residents to ‘make it a little kinky’.

In a three-page memo they told people to avoid casual sex, orgies, or sexual contact with anyone outside their household.

But in cases where this was not possible they said people should ‘be creative’ and use ‘physical barriers’ like walls.

Virtual sex in ‘Zoom parties’ were also recommended, as well as in chat rooms on the internet.

Monkeypox is not a sexually transmitted disease, with anyone at risk of catching it from others should they touch a rash or skin lesion.

But the World Health Organization is currently looking into reports that the rash-causing virus may be spread through the semen.

Italian and German scientists say they have detected fragments of the tropical disease in the semen of patients.

It is currently unclear whether these pieces are infectious, and capable of causing the disease in another individual.

But scientists at the Spallanzani Institute, in Rome, say at least one of their patients had enough fragments in their semen to suggest another person could be infected.

Officials are urging gay and bisexual men to be aware of new lesions, rashes or scabs and get in contact with a sexual health clinic

Medical literature suggests monkeypox patients typically experience a flu-like fever followed by a rash emerging on the face before spreading to the rest of the body three days later.

But the CDC says in many cases spotted so far patients have skipped straight to suffering the rashes.

They add that these are often localized around the penis and anus — and in some cases do not spread to other areas of the body.

They would also change at different speeds, with some moving to puss-filled blisters while others still had fluid-filled ones. Medical literature suggests that generally all rashes should progress at the same speed to fluid and then puss-filled blisters.

Most infections in the outbreak are being detected among gay or bisexual men and linked to international travel.

But at least two have now been spotted among people who have not recently traveled and are not linked to a known infections, suggesting it is transmitting under the radar.

Scientists have already raised concerns that monkeypox is likely traveling undetected in some parts of the country.

Most infections are mild, and clear up on their own within four weeks. But one in 100 can prove fatal, estimates suggest.