This is the new discriminatory statement by the Russian authorities towards the LGBT community. In a video published earlier this week on the Telegram channel SHOTthe head of Russia’s public health and epidemiology agency Rospotrebnadzor, said her country was protected from the threat of MPOX by “its traditional values,” suggesting that the incidence rate was higher among homosexuals.
“Given the specifics of the way Mpox spreads, I am absolutely sure that in Russia, a country with its traditional values, this disease, which is an epidemic disease, is not something we should be afraid of,” Anna Popova said, according to the video identified by POLITICO. A statement that is both erroneous and discriminatory.
“Global emergency”
These remarks come as the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, estimated on August 14 that the resurgence of Mpox (formerly called “monkey pox”) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and in several East African countries, constitutes “a public health emergency of international concern”This virus, which is transmitted by contact with infected lesions, has already caused more than 500 deaths since the beginning of the year in the DRC.
In July 2022, the Mpox outbreak that had affected several countries where the virus had not previously been observed, had spread rapidly through sexual contact, particularly between men who have sex with other men, according to the WHO. But that does not mean that heterosexual people are protected from it. Especially since the resurgence in the number of cases on the African continent is linked to a new strain called clade 1b of the virus, which is more contagious and more serious.
But Russia continues to believe that “there is no risk of the disease spreading.” “The situation is under constant control,” it said. Rospotrebnadzor August 15. Irresponsible rhetoric, discriminatory speeches do not contribute to facilitating the screening of patients or to providing an adequate health response.
Over the past year, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government has stepped up its crackdown on LGBT people, making gender-confirmation surgery illegal and labeling the international LGBT movement an “extremist organization” through the Supreme Court.