“I went to World Pride and ended up with meningitis.”
Not exactly the souvenir one wants to return home from Amsterdam with, but that’s exactly what happened to gay influencer and healthcare provider Jake Collins. Collins, who has around 160,000 followers across his Instagram and TikTok accounts, shared a candid account of his diagnosis to social media this week.
His open and forthright post serves as an important message to the LGBTQ+ community; while meningitis can affect anyone, men who have sex with other men (MSM) have historically been at greater risk at contracting it. Since 2012, there have been clusters or outbreaks of bacterial meningitis—or meningococcal disease—amongst MSM in New York, Southern California, and Florida.
In his video, Collins educated his viewers on the differences between viral and bacterial meningitis, the latter of which is the more life-threatening and fatal of the two if not treated properly. For Collins, his was viral.
He explained he learned his enterovirus meningitis diagnosis by getting a spinal tap, after he started to experience a high fever and “the worst headache of my life,” a headache that didn’t respond to pain meds.
Other meningitis symptoms include neck stiffness, nausea or vomiting, brain fog, sensitivity to light, rash, or, in severe cases, seizures. Symptoms are similar for both viral and bacterial meningitis, and can appear flu-like at first, before worsening quickly. According to the CDC, while both types are an inflammation of the protective lining of the brain and spinal cord, bacterial meningitis “is serious and death can occur in a few hours.”
Enteroviruses like the one Collins contracted, meanwhile, are primarily spread via fecal-oral and respiratory routes, as small stool particles spread via sexual activities—like anilingus or oral after anal sex—or via contaminated hands, food and water. Other types of meningitis can be spread through respiratory droplets and saliva.
Collins warned meningitis can also often spread in “highly social environments,” like Pride events.
“Most headaches aren’t meningitis,” he assured, “but a severe headache with fever is not something to ignore. Especially if you’ve been ‘social’ lately.” Early detection, he added, can make all the difference in recovery.
After one follower said “That’s why I don’t eat ass,” Collins responded, reiterating that “you can get meningitis from kissing, sharing drinks, even from touching contaminated surfaces. So even avoiding 🍑 will not guarantee you aren’t exposed.”
He also added in his caption, “And for the record, I don’t blame World Pride 😂 I have no way of knowing exactly where I picked it up.”
According to the CDC, most diagnosed with viral meningitis get better on their own within 7-10 days. In his video, Collins said he continued to deal with “consistent fatigue, headaches, brain fog, difficulty concentrating” during his recovery, which he felt was going “much slower” than he anticipated. He said he got to a point where he was “too sick to work.”
The CDC notes that antiviral medications may also help those with meningitis caused by herpesvirus and influenza.
There is no vaccine for viral meningitis, only bacterial.
Meningococcal disease infections have been on the rise since 2021. Per NBC News, that’s likely due to declining vaccination rates and mutating bacteria. Currently, the CDC does recommend meningococcal vaccination for all preteens and teens, as well as other children and adults at increased risk. This at a time where there’s a growing sentiment against vaccines in general.
Meningococcal vaccination for adults is recommended for those with HIV, and anyone traveling to countries where disease is common or living in communal settings like a college residence hall or military barracks. Vaccinations are also recommended to any part of the population at increased risk during an outbreak—as was the case, most recently, for gay men in Florida in 2022.
The CDC also notes that some vaccination side effects can occur, though they’re usually mild and go away on their own. Some of those reactions include redness and soreness, muscle pain, headache, chills, fever, fatigue, and nausea.
Prevention tips, meanwhile, include washing one’s hands often, especially after using the restroom or changing a diaper, disinfecting frequently touched surfaces, and avoiding close contact with those who are sick. To stop the spread, any people who recently had diarrhea are also advised to avoid pools.
We should also point out that while PrEP and Doxy-PEP greatly reduce the chances of contracting HIV, chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis, they have no effect on meningitis.
