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.
According to the study, seventy-four cases of meningococcal disease were reported among MSM and 453 among non-MSM. Annualized incidence of meningococcal disease among MSM was 0.56 cases per 100,000 population, compared to 0.14 among non-MSM, for a relative risk of 4.0 (95% CI: 3.1-5.1). Among the 64 MSM with known status, 38 (59%) were HIV-infected. HIV-infected MSM had 10.1 times (95% CI: 6.1-16.6) the risk of HIV-uninfected MSM (Folaranmi et al. 2017). These findings showed that MSM are at an increased risk of catching meningitis, although the occurrence rate of the disease is low, especially if they have HIV.
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.
