A California man has revealed he had Covid and monkeypox at the same time – and his symptoms left him in bed during “weeks of misery.” Mitcho Thompson, of Northern California, recently tested positive for Covid-19 and monkeypox at the same time, according to NBC Bay Area.
The Sebastopol man said he started noticing red wounds across his body shortly after testing positive for Covid. He spoke with NBC Bay Area earlier this week, explaining how he discovered lesions on his body on his legs, arms, back, and neck – and that was when he realized he might have monkeypox.
“The doctor was very certain that I have monkeypox and that I had both,” he told the news outlet. “That was the question. Could I get them at the same time? And he said, ‘Yes, yes, yes.'” Thompson noted that he felt “really sick” and recounted the “worst of it” was when he could “barely” get out of bed or a drink of water.
He referred to the time frame he was sick as “weeks of misery” because it felt like he had a really bad flu. However, Thompson was feeling much better at the time of the interview with NBC Bay Area. Dr. Dean Winslow, a Stanford University professor of medicine who also spoke with the news outlet, said getting Covid at the same time as monkeypox is very rare but possible.
The infectious diseases specialist said: “It’s certainly not impossible for that to occur. “It’s just incredibly bad luck. They are very different viruses.” Most monkeypox cases that Winslow has come across were spread through skin-to-skin contact, he told the news outlet, noting that Covid is transmitted more easily.
The news comes as monkeypox cases continue to rise in the US with new infections detected, data from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention shows. The latest update by the CDC brings the nation’s total cases to 2,323, just months after the first US case was detected.
The US confirmed its first case of monkeypox in a traveler who returned to Massachusetts from Canada on May 17. New York has been struck the hardest with 581 confirmed cases, followed by California with 356 and Illinois and Florida with 208. Anyone can get the illness – more so if you have been in contact or had sexual contact with someone with symptoms. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new guidance about how to identify monkeypox during the outbreak. FULL REPORT
