Deal With It: Treat MRSA Like We Should Have Treated AIDS

MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), commonly known as drug-resistant Staph, has been quite a newsmaker lately. This bacterial infection is fatal if it isn’t treated in time, and with costly intravenous drugs. But there’s been a new development. According to a Reuters article I read this morning, a US study has found that the infection is being transmitted at higher-than-normal rates during gay male sex.  

There was a time when the word ‘staph’ evoked images of unclean hospitals, or unregulated medical procedures. Now, the beginning of the AIDS epidemic is brought to mind. I was too young to really understand what it all meant at the outset. After studying it later, however, one word resonated: denial.  Denial was rampant, across multiple communities. Some groups rejected the idea that there was a “gay” disease afoot and neglected to take precautions to protect themselves. Others were way too eager to write AIDS off as something that afflicted only gay men, thus they left themselves open as well.  

Here’s what I’m thinking. This time, we have a good shot at actually getting it right. While this ninja stealth strain of staph might be attacking one group more than another, none of us are immune. And we have learned from the past that sticking our heads in the sand works 0% of the time. There are no fingers to be pointed, only solutions to be vocalized.

Chua Soi Lek – Another One Bites the Dust Due to Side Action

It certainly didn’t begin with Bill Clinton, but his sex scandal changed the scope of the public response to crises such as these. Oh, but wait—why exactly should public officials engaging in extramarital affairs even be considered a crisis? I have been asking this question since Lewinskygate, and am still waiting for an answer that makes sense. 

Malaysian Health Minister, Chua Soi Lek, just resigned his post after a DVD surfaced depicting him engaging in sex acts with a woman other than his wife. While this is certainly terrible for his family, I don’t understand why it has cost him his job. My position on this is hardly new, but it is one that will continue to stand each and every time we revisit this issue.  

We elect these people to do a job for us. Does Chua’s bedroom behavior hinder his ability to do the job for which he was chosen? According to the MSN article, he made great strides as Malaysia’s health minister. So why exactly did his infidelity cause him to resign his post? 

Sometimes, constituents take the position that to ignore is to condone. I wholeheartedly reject this notion. Some matters simply don’t belong in the public forum. If it was a case of sexual addiction that stood in the way of the normal ability to do the job he was elected to do, I’d understand. But his affair is something his wife and family should be concerned with, not the general public. 

If we don’t like the way an elected official lives his or her life, we have the power to reject them through our voting practices. But to hold these people to a higher moral standard than the rest of us seems extremely asinine to me. He isn’t a priest (I’m not opening that can though…), he’s a government official. Committing a crime is one thing, but an act of moral reprehension shouldn’t necessarily end a political career.