Yes. What you suggest absolutely could be the case depending where TGO picks up after ToN. I was assuming no delay between the end of ToN and beginning of TGO but if there were a big enough hiatus - several months say - something along those lines could well be possible. In fact I remember at the beginning of TGO newsreader Kimberley Foxx banging on about Eclipse Guild arrests AND a "sex virus" on Channel 4 TV, although based on what she said it's impossible to tell whether she refers to a local event or much bigger incident, possibly a national even international rapidly expanding contagion.
Your theory is eminently plausible but how is the "sex virus" being transmitted?
(Can't be by exchange of bodily fluids, e.g., sex, because that's too slow a process to cause a pandemic quickly.)
Best not to ask such questions really because in the NLT Media universe medical science and epidemiology can be dismissed out of hand I suppose.
Oh, well, fingers crossed for coherent explanations in respect to such questions over the next couple of years as TGO evolves.
At least TGO gives intelligent players something to think about and mull over which is as unusual as it is good for a lewd game and I appreciate the developers taking the trouble.