Being infected with monkeypox is “100 times worse” than suffering Covid-19 disease, warned a US man working as a bartender in Texas.
Luke Shannahan said the illness left him with a fever of 101F, a headache and swollen lymph nodes that made him look like “a frog” just two days after he was told he had been exposed, NBCDFW reported.
Calling it the “most traumatic experience” lasting 10 days, he noted that he felt like someone was sticking needles into his body.
“By day 2, I started having a fever of 101 (degrees) and that lasted for three days. He had a constant headache. The lymph nodes were swollen like he was a frog,” he said.
A day or two later, severe blisters developed.
“The pain and tenderness were constant,” Shannahan said. “It’s like someone took a ball of needles and kept stabbing you with it.”
Compared to the covid infection, which he contracted last year, Shannahan said monkeypox is “100 times worse.” “This was a totally different level of extreme fatigue.” He managed to get vaccinated against monkeypox, according to the report.
In an interview with KHOU 11 news, Shannahan said he doesn’t know how he got the disease.
“I was in bars. I was going to pool parties. I went to a music event over the weekend and recently all those people have turned positive,” Shannahan said.
The Dallas Department of Health notified him that he had been exposed to the virus.
“It appeared to be a contact tracing phone call,” Shannahan said.
Shannahan said he spent the last three weeks in quarantine dealing with symptoms that he described as “complete hell.”
“You have these blisters that are inflamed and every time you brush against something or touch something, it literally feels like someone is putting a potato peeler on your skin,” Shannahan said.
“All the pain was constant,” he said.
The infection, which is spread through bodily fluids and prolonged contact, has largely spread among gay men, but Texas just reported the first case of it in a woman, according to the report.
“This is definitely something we need to pay attention to. This is not just a gay disease, this is not something that only affects gay men who have sex with men. This is definitely something that can affect everyone,” the advocate said. LGBTQ Austin. Davis Ruiz told KHOU 11.
