Kyle Plank, who recovered from monkeypox, admits he was lucky to have many encounters with doctors
The “curse” of monkeypox… “I hope no one goes through what I went through”, says a 26-year-old New Yorker who recovered from monkey pox, completing the story of his health adventure to Agence France-Presse (AFP). Kyle Plank emphasizes that he felt “the worst pains” of his life and expresses his regret for the delayed reaction of the health authorities when the first cases appeared in the United States.
The pharmacology PhD student learned about the disease – which is endemic in parts of Africa – last May when the first cases were announced in Europe and the United States, mostly involving gay men.
“I was a little worried that it might affect us here, especially since I’m part of the LGBTQI+ community,” he told AFP in an interview from a Queens park with Manhattan’s skyscrapers in the background.
At the end of June, “right after Pride”, the flagship event of the LGBTI+ community, he remembers starting to feel “sick”. The test for the detection of coronavirus came back negative. The symptoms (fever and swollen lymph nodes) led him to consider the possibility of monkeypox. The first doctor he visited told him to watch how the symptoms progressed, but the rashes that appeared after four days of fever left no doubt. “A day later, they had spread all over the body,” in about 30 places, Kyle Plank describes.
On July 5, he underwent tests and the next day began treatment with Tpoxx (tecavirimate), an antiviral effective against smallpox, which had been approved on an experimental basis against monkeypox.
“Hot baths”
Kyle Plank admits that he was lucky because he had many acquaintances with doctors. “I know this doesn’t happen to most people,” he says, explaining that he has sent letters to many asking for access to antiviral treatment.
Although the treatment brought him relief quickly and the disease gradually subsided with milder symptoms, he describes how the monkeypox left him, for about a week, in “the worst pain” of his life.
“I took hot baths 6-7 times a day, that was the only relief,” he explains. “It was exhausting,” she says, describing feeling pain on a 7/10 scale throughout the day. At the same time, he adds, he was afraid that his roommate might be infected, even though he knew that the virus is only transmitted through close contact.
He considers his case to have been “relatively mild” due to quick diagnosis and treatment. He admits that “many have a much worse experience”.
Criticism of the reaction of the health authorities
Kyle Plank believes that action could have been taken sooner, but “because it only affected a small portion of the population, maybe it wasn’t considered a priority.” “For the government it was kind of like ‘let’s wait and see what happens, let’s wait and see if there’s a problem’, but that’s not the case with infectious diseases,” he underlines. “We have vaccines, we have millions of doses of Tpoxx,” but “we are not yet able to mobilize these resources,” he adds.
The United States also has 100 million doses of the ACAM2000 vaccine, which was developed against smallpox but causes significant side effects and is not indicated for the immunocompromised.
When the first cases of monkeypox appeared in the US, there were only a thousand doses of the Jynneos vaccine (a more modern and safer vaccine), mainly because nearly 800,000 doses were blocked in Denmark pending approval by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This particular vaccine was finally made available only at the end of June.
New York, with a population of more than 8 million, has so far recorded 711 cases of monkeypox, a tally that experts say may be an underestimate. The American metropolis has received 21,500 doses of the Jynneos vaccine and expects another 25,000 doses in the next period.
RES-EMP
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