For the first time, a man tested positive at the same time for three major viruses: SARS-CoV-2, monkeypox and HIV. How is it possible ?
This is a unique case in the medical literature. A 36-year-old Italian man tested positive at the same time for three virus pathogens: SARS-CoV-2, monkeypox virus and the HIV. The patient spent five days in Spain, from June 16 to 20, 2022. A few days after his return to Italy, he is feverish, tired and his lymph nodes are swollen. He tests for Covid-19 which turns out to be positive. But, the same day, his state of health deteriorates. Skin blisters appear on his torso, lower limbs, face and buttocks. After three days of pimples spreading continuously, causing her terrible painsthe patient decides to go to the hospital in Catania, Sicily.
Covid-19, monkeypox and HIV at the same time
The biological analyzes are formal, he is infected with monkeypox, a strain from the clade “West Africa”, responsible for the outbreak of cases in Spain at the beginning of the summer. He is still positive for Covid-19; for the Omicron BA5 variant precisely. The young man tells the doctors that during his stay in Spain, he had unprotected sex with another man. As a precaution, doctors perform screening for STI the most frequent. It is negative for hepatitis viral, theherpesthe gonorrhea and the chlamydiabut the analyzes reveal the presence of HIV up to 234,000 copies of the genome of virus per milliliter. The number of T4 lymphocyte of the patient is within normal values, suggesting that the infection is quite recent. Indeed, the man had tested for HIV in September 2021 which was negative.
The sexual relationship that the patient had seems to be at the origin of this triple infection, the doctors point out that ” symptoms of monkey pox and Covid-19 may overlap and support the fact that in case of co-infection, anamnestic collection and sexual habits are crucial to make the correct diagnosis. “. Although different, the two viruses are transmitted through close contact with a sick individual, whether through the skin for the monkey poxwhere the aerosols for Covid-19. As this case is unique, it is difficult to say whether the simultaneous presence of the three viruses in the patient’s body will significantly affect his health. He was discharged from hospital after symptoms of Covid-19 and monkeypox resolved, and is now following a tritherapy for HIV.
Interested in what you just read?