A staph infection strain that killed 19,000 Americans in 2005 and was formerly contained to hospital is now spreading among gay men in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York. (Reuters via Drudge).

Sexually active gay men in San Francisco are 13 times more likely to be infected than their heterosexual neighbors, the researchers reported in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

“Once this reaches the general population, it will be truly unstoppable,” said Binh Diep, a researcher at the University of California, San Francisco who led the study. “That’s why we’re trying to spread the message of prevention.”

. . .

Of those people who carry staph, most carry it in their noses but community-based MRSA also can live in and around the anus and is passed between sexual partners.

And you thought the housing slump was a pain in the butt.

The best way to avoid infection is by washing the hands or genitals with soap and water, Diep said.

Really. My cro-magnon little mind was thinking, “stop using your anus as a sex organ.” Silly me.

But it gets better. As you know, among the conspiracy whacks, Reagan invented AIDS and the CIA planted it in gay communities. Well, it took a thread on the Democratic Underground only about 13 posts to (a) cheer that non-gay men have died from the disease, and (b) blame it on the CIA.