There is so much going on for men during the month of June, Father’s Day, Men’s Health week, and the National HIV Testing Day on June 27th. All of these days remind us to focus on the men in our lives, which includes yearly checkups that can help promote a healthier lifestyle. Many times diseases like HIV can lead to meningitis, which can be fatal.
Meningitis is a rare and potentially fatal disease most often caused by the meningococcal infection. These outbreaks were first noticed back in 2016 in major cities like New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles in men who have sex with men (MSM), most of them also having HIV.
The bacteria in meningococcal infection can be transmitted through saliva, or if one lives with someone who has the disease. When someone has the infection, their membranes in the brain and spinal cord become inflamed. Some onset symptoms of the disease are fever, severe headaches, neck stiffness, nausea, vomiting, drowsiness, and much more. Results of the disease may include hearing loss, damage to the central nervous system, seizures and more. If not treated immediately, long-term effects of the disease can result in death.
US research has found that there is an increased risk of the meningococcal infection spreading in MSM, reported in the online edition of Clinical Infectious Diseases. These findings are especially apparent in men who have HIV, in which the risk of extracting the disease increases by four times.
The research was conducted on all meningococcal disease cases that were among men aged 18-64 years who also reported to the National Notifiable Disease Surveillance System between January 2012 and June 2015. The subjects were men who did not have sex with other men, and men who did have sex with other men.
Multiple studies state that it is crucial for men who have sex with men to get vaccinated for the disease, especially if they have HIV. It is also recommended for those who do have HIV to be receiving more doses of the vaccine than those who do not.