An Italian man has just become the first person to simultaneously test positive for monkeypox, Covid, and HIV after a trip to Spain.
It was revealed earlier this year, that the 36-year-old Italian male began developing a series of symptoms including fatigue, fever, and a sore throat nine days after returning from a trip to Spain. The identity of the patient has not been revealed but reports have it the patient had spent five days in Spain from the 16th of June to the 20th of June, this year. The patient had already confessed to having unprotected sex with his fellow men.
According to a case study report published in the Journal of Infection, the Italian tested positive for coronavirus, on July 2.
Three days later, 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. Three days later, after being tested for monkeypox, after showing symptoms alluding to the virus, the results turned out positive.
The patient was additionally screened for multiple sexually transmitted infections -STIs and he tested positive for Human Immunodeficiency virus -HIV-1. Researchers have admitted that with the patients’ preserved CD4 count, it was safe to assume that the infection was a recent one. However, the patient had taken a HIV test in September 2021 and returned a negative result.
After recovering from COVID-19 and monkeypox, the patient has since been discharged from the hospital on July 11 and is currently isolating.
This case highlights how monkeypox and COVID-19 symptoms sometimes overlap and have similar symptoms. It also corroborates that in the case of co-infection, anamnestic collection and sexual habits are of importance to perform the correct diagnosis, the researchers at the University of Catania, confessed in their case report.
