To agree with this article? Sexism and the zika virus

[agapimou]

Found this article really interesting

www.attn.com/stories/5690/sexism-zika-virus-warnings

It asks why women are expected to shoulder all the responsibility for not falling pregnant and nothing has been said to men, even though the virus can be sexually transmitted. In theory, a man with zika could travel to another country and infect a healthy women, but men have not been told to abstain from sex for two years.

"Why does the very suggestion of any government recommending men to practice abstinence for two years seem like a joke?" she wrote. "The cultural reflex to hold women accountable for male lust and subsequent reproduction is so ingrained that we don’t even notice the asymmetry. Indeed, it strikes the domesticated mind as verging on unreasonable to hold men morally responsible when pregnancy is unwelcome, unwanted, or, in the case of the Zika virus, a potential public health disaster."

I think the article makes a valid point, anyone else?

I think it is very valid. You might be interested in this BBC reporter's take on it, in El Salvador where abortion is illegal and contraception hard to come by.

I don't understand what Zika does, but my understanding is that it doesn't make the patient that poorly. The interest in it is purely because of the catastrophic microcephaly in the baby. So a person might easily not know they had it, and it would be very easy for a man simply not to care.

But how on earth do you ask an entire continent (and it's in Europe now too) to abstain from sex for ooh maybe two years just in case?!

But how on earth do you ask an entire continent (and it's in Europe now too) to abstain from sex for ooh maybe two years just in case?!

Would condoms stop Zika being transmitted sexually? If so, they wouldn't have to abstain completely.

Would condoms stop Zika being transmitted sexually? If so, they wouldn't have to abstain completely

Confirms are not approved by the Catholic Church and are conveniently hard to get hold off/hard to get men to use. Good one Catholicism.

I was forgetting that, whois

they suggest not getting pregnant. they dont suggest not having sex.

men cant get pregnant

Men in the UK are advised to use condoms for any PIV sex for 28 days after return from a Zika affected area or 6 months if they've had symptoms. If they aren't prepared to wear a condom then the corollary is that they need to keep it in their pants.

Quite prepared to believe that the advice given out in Latin America will be more sexist though. I think this might be a huge challenge for the Catholic Church in Latin America, because they can't swerve it by saying it's about disease control - it's entirely about preventing conception.

Since the virus was found in transmissible form in semen, the advice has specifically included wearing a condom.

The Roman Catholic Church approved the use of condoms for the prevention of the transmission of viruses in 2010.

If there are obstacles to obtaining them in certain countries, this is down to their governments, not the stance of the RC church.

The Roman Catholic Church approved the use of condoms for the prevention of the transmission of viruses in 2010

Wow so six whole years ago they said condoms were on for disease prevention.... Unfortunately that doesn't immediately change attitudes towards condoms and in areas where there hasn't been a disease prevention issue before, condoms are not routinely used or widely available.