Another Shitstorm: Sexually-Transmitted Diarrhea Sweeps the Nation

It's happening again (or should I say, "crappening" again):  Another self-induced outbreak in the U.S. is being met with laugh reacts and emojis by a science-denying public of infantile plague spreaders.  This time sexually-transmitted in nature.  A spate of articles warning of treatment-resistant "sexually transmitted diarrhea" are making the rounds, and already the denialism is loud.  "Just in time for midterms, eh?!"  "More fear porn, no thanks!"  "Just when we got over the cyclospora" etc. 

Unfortunately this self-induced shitshow (sorry, last one) is all too real, and it's not hard to imagine what's causing it but I'll go ahead and spell it out for the slow ones in the back:  oral-anal contact.  And for the REALLY slow ones:  putting your mouth & tongue in/on/around someone's asshole.  Which an increasing number of people, including otherwise "vanilla" heterosexuals, does these days.  Why?  Dear God, why?  Presumably because it's talked about in popular music and depicted in porn and people are utterly incapable of not following idiotic trends without a second thought, even dangerous sexual ones.  







(Specific) Causes

This shouldn't require a tutorial

So what pathogen is the actual CAUSE of this particular diarrhea?  That's the scary thing:  it's not just one, two or even 3 bugs to blame.  There are so many fecal-oral diseases that are not spread via other types of sex that it's a bit disturbing how anyone ever thought this was a good idea.  Why Sex Ed classes aren't warning specifically against oral-anal contact is beyond me when so many people suffer from chronic GI diseases like ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease and C. diff, which kills between 15,000-30,000 Americans per year and infects half a million.  It's a well established fact that viral/bacterial infections can trigger diseases up to and including colon cancer in people under 50, so this should all be taken a lot more seriously. 

C. diff is just one nasty infection that can be spread this way.  Here are a few more that have been linked specifically to treatment-resistant diarrhea:

Risk > Reward

Historical Precedent:  Gay Bowel Disease 

In the late '70s and early 1980s right before the dawn of AIDS, gay men were afflicted with what was then termed "gay bowel disease," (notice any familiar bugs in that link?) a collection of colon and rectal diseases spread by anal sex and oral-anal sex.  They were also discovered to have astronomically high rates of Hepatitis B compared to the general population.  And then, of course, came HIV/AIDS which was also transmitted more readily via anal sex than other types.  It was even labeled "GRID" or "GRIDS" (Gay-Related Immune Deficiency Syndrome") in the earliest days.

Of course, viruses and other pathogens have no knowledge nor preference for one sexual orientation over another.  Not all gay men engage in these practices and many heterosexuals do, which has always been the case.  But this is even more true today in the post-AIDS world of on-demand porn and open discussion of sex practices like "eating booty" among celebrities and influencers.  More people engaging in these dangerous practices = more cases of these diseases regardless of sexual orientation, and it won't stop with fecal-oral disease.  (See: monkeypox).   

And those diseases do not remain restricted to consenting adults who engage in these acts; they inevitably spill over into exposed children and babies, elderly people, immunocompromised patients and others.  So even if YOU don't engage in these behaviors, you could still be affected directly or indirectly, such as by increased antibiotic resistance or transmission outside of a sexual setting (food or water contamination).  That's why none of this is the least bit funny.

Women know all too well how getting even tiny traces of backdoor bacteria in the urethra will cause a burning urinary tract infection that can progress to the bladder, kidneys and bloodstream if left untreated.  Well, the same happens when you get it in your mouth: it enters your stomach, small and large intestine and multiplies, causing acute illness that can become chronic or even fatal in severe cases.  Antibiotic-resistant means just that--there are no or very few treatments that work, and those that do may leave your gut in a terrible state after the fact. 

Harm Reduction

Exit only

This is normally where I'd tell you some convenient ways to reduce your risk while still engaging in the behavior, but that's just not possible here.  Part of harm reduction is being able to honestly weigh the risks vs. benefits of a given activity and discern when the risks are just too high to justify engaging in the behavior.  This is certainly the case with some drugs:  toxic inhalants like paint, glue and computer duster; carfentanil, krokodil.  Putting your mouth or tongue on somebody's anus is comparable in terms of disease risk.  It doesn't matter how well they clean the area--it's impossible to remove all traces of infectious pathogens, which are invisible anyway.  No amount of temporary pleasure is worth possibly contracting and spreading a deadly or debilitating disease like antibiotic-resistant diarrhea, C. diff, Crohn's disease or the bacteria that cause colon cancer.

This isn't about being biased toward a sex act I don't like or being homophobic (newsflash:  I'm gay).  It's about basic hygiene and common sense.  We're already facing a huge disease burden due to low vaccination rates, antibiotic resistance, lack of universal healthcare, climate change and its downstream effects (vector-borne disease, biodiversity loss, etc) & these shady BSL labs that constantly have "leaks" and safety breaches.  The last thing we need is more preventable transmissible disease. 

With all this hippie dippie talk about the "gut-brain connection" and the "microbiome," overlooking dangerous sexual practices like this is hypocritical bordering on ludicrous.  If you want to be taken seriously, you must be consistent.  This isn't a problem probiotics and kombucha will fix.