The Blowjob Blog's resident gay man, Adrian emailed me with a warning recently... If you're gay and enjoy blowjobs you might want to stay clear of New Zealand for the near future.
The region's top sexual health expert, Dr Jane MacDonald, Clinical Director of Wellington Sexual Health, has issued a call for all gay men and bisexual men to get tested after an outbreak of syphilis hit the country.
She explains that Syphilis is more easily spread than HIV and can have debilitating long-term effects if left untreated. Syphilis is spread through unprotected oral and anal sex, and as most gay men don't use condoms when engaging in oral sex, the infection has spread like wildfire.
Some people don’t have any symptoms in the initial stages. Some people develop nasty looking but reasonably painless ulcers on the genitals or the mouth or anus. Unless these sores are visible, infected men may not notice them, and continue to spread the disease, which is incredibly infectious.
Dr MacDonald encourages gay and bisexual men to urgently seek testing at their local sexual health clinic. Men at risk include anyone who has had oral sex with another man or unprotected anal sex, outside of a monogamous relationship, says MacDonald. "The best thing people can do, if they’re worried, if they have any symptoms they’re worried about, but just if they feel they’ve been at risk, is to come in. It’s easy to do a check, we have the results available within about a week," and men can be tested for other easily treatable infections at the same time.
On a brighter note, syphilis is completely treatable with penicillin, but there are alternatives for those allergic to penicillin. 