First time ever in history, a 36-year-old in Italy has tested positive for the monkeypox virus, COVID-19 and HIV, local media reports have said. As per reports, scientists have reported this as the first known case of a person testing positive for these viruses, all at once.
The man began to develop a series of symptoms, including fatigue, fever and sore throat- nine days after returning from a trip to Spain earlier this year.
He has spent over five days in Spain from June 16 to 20, during which he has admitted to having unprotected sex with men. On July 2, the man has tested positive for COVID-19, as per the case study report published in the Journal of Infection.
A rash began to develop on his left arm on the afternoon of the same day. The report added the report added that small, painful vesicles surrounded by a rash appeared on his torso, lower limbs, face and glutes the next day.
By July 5, the vesicles had again 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 Disease unit. There, he was tested for monkeypox as well as subsequently returned to a positive result.
The patient was also checked for multiple STIs. He has tested positive for HIV-1, and the researchers said that “given his preserved CD4 count, we could imagine that the infection was relatively recent.”
Following recovering from COVID-19 and monkeypox, the patient was discharged from medical care on July 11 and sent home to isolate. By this stage, his skin lesions had healed, after crusting over, leaving a small scar.