Italian man, 36, becomes the first person to simultaneously test positive for monkeypox, Covid and HIV
- An Italian male, 36, developed symptoms 9 days after returning from Spain
- The man spent 5 days from 16-20 June on holiday, where he had unprotected sex
- On July 2 he tested positive for Covid, followed by monkeypox and then HIV
Scientists have reported the first known case of a person testing positive for monkeypox, Covid-19 and HIV at the same time.
Earlier this year, a 36-year-old Italian male began to develop a series of symptoms — including fatigue, fever, and a sore throat — nine days after returning from a trip to Spain.
The man, who has not been identified, spent five days in Spain from 16 to 20 June 2022 during which he admitted to having unprotected sex with men.
On July 2, the man tested positive for Covid, according to a case study report published in the Journal of Infection.
Scientists have reported the first known case of a person testing positive for monkeypox, Covid-19 and HIV at the same time
On the afternoon of the same day, a rash started to develop on his left arm. The following day, small, painful vesicles surrounded by a rash appeared on the man’s torso, lower limbs, face and glutes.
By July 5, the vesicles had further spread and evolved into pustules – small bumps on the skin – at which point the man went to the emergency department at the San Marco University Hospital in Catania, Italy and was subsequently transferred to the Infectious Diseases unit.
There, he was tested for monkeypox and subsequently returned a positive result.
The Italian male, 36, went to a hospital in Palermo after developing vesicles and a rash. Pictured: stock photo of monkeypox vesicles on a hand
The patient was also screened for multiple STIs. He tested positive for HIV-1, and the researchers said that ‘given his preserved CD4 count, we could assume that the infection was relatively recent.’
The patient had taken an HIV test in September 2021 and returned a negative result.
German monkeypox patient whose nose started to ROT because his HIV and syphilis left his immune system ravaged
A monkeypox patient’s nose started to rot in one of the most shocking cases documented in the current outbreak.
The 40-year-old man, from Germany, went to his GP with a red spot on his nose which was initially dismissed as sunburn.
But within three days the skin on his nose started to die and turn black, leaving him with a painful, swollen scab.
A 40-year-old monkeypox patient’s nose started to rot off because of an undiagnosed HIV infection in Germany, doctors claim
Around the same time white pus-filled spots developed across his entire body, which were particularly bad on his penis and around his mouth.
A PCR test confirmed he was infected with monkeypox and he was taken to hospital and given a course of antiviral medication.
Further tests revealed the patient, who was not named, also had undiagnosed syphilis and HIV. He told medics he had never been tested for a sexually transmitted infection (STI) before.
The man was given drugs to treat the infections and the lesions dried out but his nose only ‘partially improved’.
Doctors said his case had become so severe because the untreated HIV had left him immunocompromised, making him more at risk of necrosis.
After recovering from Covid-19 and monkeypox, the patient was discharged from hospital on July 11 and sent home to isolate.
By this stage, his skin lesions had healed, after crusting over, leaving a small scar.
‘This case highlights how monkeypox and Covid-19 symptoms may overlap, and corroborates how in case of co-infection, anamnestic collection and sexual habits are crucial to perform the correct diagnosis,’ the researchers, from the University of Catania, said in their case report.
‘To note, the monkeypox oropharyngeal swab was still positive after 20 days, suggesting that these individuals may still be contagious for several days after clinical remission,’ the report said.
‘Consequently, physicians should encourage appropriate precautions.’
The researchers added: ‘As this is the only reported case of monkeypox virus, SARS-CoV-2 and HIV co-infection, there is still not enough evidence supporting that this combination may aggravate patient’s condition.
‘Given the current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and the daily increase of monkeypox cases, healthcare systems must be aware of this eventuality.’
This comes after a report suggested the monkeypox virus could be mutating at a rate faster than scientists predicted.
Officially declared a global health emergency by the World Health Organization (WHO), monkeypox has spread to dozens of countries in what is being termed an ‘extraordinary event’ by experts.
There have been nearly 32,000 monkeypox cases worldwide since the latest outbreak started in May. More than 3,000 patients have been diagnosed in the UK and 10,000 in the US.
As part of new research by Nature Medicine, scientists looked at the DNA strain of the current monkeypox virus and found it bore close relation to a strain behind a 2018-19 outbreak in Nigeria.
Scientists found that the virus mutated 50 times since the 2018-19 outbreak, and this mutation could help explain why the virus is spreading in parts of the world where it should be struggling more.
So far, the UK has diagnosed 3,081 people with the tropical disease.
The vast majority of infections so far have been found in gay or bisexual men, but the virus can be spread or caught by anyone.
Monkeypox can take up to three weeks for monkeypox-infected patients to develop any of its tell-tale symptoms.
Early signs of the virus include a fever, headache, muscle aches, backache, swollen lymph nodes, chills and exhaustion.
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