{"id":27285,"date":"2021-04-09T06:32:22","date_gmt":"2021-04-09T10:32:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/?p=27285"},"modified":"2021-04-09T13:36:32","modified_gmt":"2021-04-09T17:36:32","slug":"special-report-by-luciano-cesta-on-lgbtq-health-in-massachusetts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/2021\/04\/09\/special-report-by-luciano-cesta-on-lgbtq-health-in-massachusetts\/","title":{"rendered":"Special Report by Luciano Cesta on LGBTQ Health in the US"},"content":{"rendered":"<!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-27285-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"\/wtbu\/files\/2021\/04\/CESTA_story1_redo.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"\/wtbu\/files\/2021\/04\/CESTA_story1_redo.mp3\">\/wtbu\/files\/2021\/04\/CESTA_story1_redo.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<p>When Conrado Cardenas, a gay man who lives in Roslindale, woke up on New Year\u2019s Eve, he had a fever. His fever, which fluctuated between 101 &#8211; 103.7 degrees, would not abate for the next 21 days. Though he tested positive for COVID-19, he would not experience the typical symptoms.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI had no loss of breath, no loss of taste or smell. All I had was a temperature,\u201d said Cardenas, \u201cit was very difficult because I had to sleep on towels. I was here by myself, people brought me food but I had to make myself eat.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On the thirteenth day of his illness, he went to the emergency room, and while he eventually recovered he was worried about what would happen next. He has experienced loss during the pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve had friends who had passed that have had the COVID and once they started coughing it was like the end of it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The LGBTQ community, of which Cardenas is a part of, may be at a higher risk of developing COVID-19 complications says a report released in the Center for Disease Control\u2019s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Released on February 5th, the report found that sexual minorities are more likely to have pre-existing conditions that may cause severe COVID-19. The listed conditions include cancer, kidney disease, COPD, heart disease, obesity, smoking,<br \/>\ndiabetes, asthma, hypertension and stroke.<\/p>\n<p>Mark Estano, a nurse at Brigham and Women\u2019s hospital who works with patients who have HIV, believes the findings.\u201cWe see that we have seen health disparities for the LGBTQ community for many many years and see its effect on those populations and see how it interfaces with other\u2026 health issues,\u201d said Estano, \u201cWe\u2019ve seen that there are so many comorbidities that are more common in the LGBTQ community.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There are, however, problems creating an accurate picture of the effect of COVID-19 on the LGBTQ community. There is a lack of data on sexual orientation and gender identity when it<br \/>\ncomes to COVID-19 data collected by public health officials. Dr. Kevin Heslin, one of the report\u2019s co-authors, explains that he had to use other data to explore the topic. There is other data<br \/>\nthat links COVID risk factors, sexual orientation and gender identity.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy colleagues and I thought that, you know, since we can\u2019t do research on COVID among sexual and gender minorities, we could do research on risk factors for COVID among seuxal and gender minorities,\u201d said Dr. Heslin.<\/p>\n<p>The CDC report suggests that the prevalence of asthma amongst sexual minorities is 55% more than in heterosexuals. Asthma was recently added to the list of conditions that could qualify one for a phase 2 vaccine. The report also says smoking is 43% more prevalent amongst sexual minorities. Smokers are also and were originally on that qualifying list.<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Heslin has some ideas as to why certain conditions are more prevalent.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSome of it could relate to a lack of culturally competent healthcare\u2026 that\u2019s available to sexual and gender minorities,\u201d he said, \u201cAccess to care could certainly contribute to\u2026 the development of those kinds of chronic conditions.\u201d Joblessness and economic insecurity may also be hindering the ability to pay for care, he said.<\/p>\n<p>Estano has similar sentiments. He says that people in the community may not have the same access to jobs, housing and health insurance that heterosexual people do. He says that this<br \/>\nis even more of the case for people who are racial or ethnic minorities as well as sexual or gender minorities. In addition, the healthcare environment may not be so welcoming according to him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn my own experience, I\u2019ve seen that\u2026 folks who are sexual and gender minorities have [a] much higher degree of experiencing prejudice or downright harassment from healthcare<br \/>\nprofessionals\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The report urges public health officials to collect more surveillance data on sexual and gender minorities and COVID-19. However, it may be difficult to do so. Dr. Heslin says that he can \u201conly speculate\u201d about why this data is not being collected more frequently.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cState and local health agencies might think that adding data elements on sexual orientation or gender minorities to\u2026 COVID-19 surveillance systems would just be a burden,\u201d said Dr. Heslin.<\/p>\n<p>He says that some state and local officials may not be as aware that sexual orientation and gender identity are connected to health.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When Conrado Cardenas, a gay man who lives in Roslindale, woke up on New Year\u2019s Eve, he had a fever. His fever, which fluctuated between 101 &#8211; 103.7 degrees, would not abate for the next 21 days. Though he tested positive for COVID-19, he would not experience the typical symptoms. \u201cI had no loss of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17897,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1599,14],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27285"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17897"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27285"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27296,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27285\/revisions\/27296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}