I didn't miss anything in the story, but I think the story is missing some info.

If a disease is transmitted only by "skin contact," then why on earth would gay men be hardest hit? It's not like gay men, even promiscuous ones, are the only people who have skin contact. So what's the deal here?

I'm not blaming gays for this. The real culprit in the genesis of these bugs is probably overuse of antibiotic prescriptions for many years now. But if a disease spreading is related to behavior, it would be nice to have it acknowledged for a change. If you only knew about AIDS from what you saw on TV and read in the papers, you would think it hit people like lightning from the sky, instead of requiring certain specific and easily-avoidable behaviors to catch.