Was painful to…’: Gay man who had monkeypox shares experience. Watch | Mint – Mint
Even though World Health Organisation (WHO) and other experts have been constantly warning that gay men who are sexually active or men who have sex with men are more at risk most of them didn’t pay heed to those warnings. Charles Sanchez, while sharing his concerns regarding symptoms and other difficulties that he faced when he got infected, said ‘I just felt shame because they gave us warning that gay men are at risk, and I didnt heed those warnings’
I had monkeypox. It felt like I was passing a ground glass. I didn’t feel like I was at risk even though they were saying that gay men who are sexually active are at greater risk. I was wrong, Sanchez said.
Speaking about the symptoms, he adds, “I noticed that there was a bump on my torso and one on my hand and I thought ‘oh, oh’. At first it was looking like a mosquito bite and then it became like a zit or a white head. It’s red and it’s red around it. For me, it was painful to touch. I also started having extreme pain when I defecated. The doctors gave me some painkillers and they were really helpful.”
“Little by little I started feeling a little better. I just felt shame because they gave us warning that gay men are at risk, and I didnt heed those warnings.”
Retweeting Sanchez’s video, WHO said “Know the symptoms. Reduce your risk. Talk to a health worker if you are concerned.”
Some US health officials are conceding that monkeypox is probably not going away anytime soon. The disease’s spread is slowing but the virus is so widespread that elimination is unlikely, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said.
“It’s in many geographic locations within the country” as well as in other countries, Marc Lipsitch, director of science in the agency’s disease-forecasting centre, told The Associated Press. “There’s no clear path in our mind to complete elimination domestically.”
It’s important that people at risk take steps to prevent spread and that vaccination efforts continue, Lipsitch said.
More than 90 countries where monkeypox is not endemic have reported outbreaks of the viral disease, which the World Health Organization has declared a global health emergency, as confirmed cases crossed 68,000 and non-endemic countries reported their first related deaths.