Health

A Man Tested Positive For COVID-19, Monkeypox And HIV On The Same Day

(Photo by ERNESTO BENAVIDES/AFP via Getty Images)

Dylan Housman Deputy News Editor
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An unidentified Italian man tested positive for COVID-19, monkeypox and HIV all in the same day, according to a new case study in the Journal of Infection.

The man, 36, is the first known simultaneous case of the three viruses. He developed a fever, sore throat and headaches nine days after returning from a trip to Spain, where he’d reportedly had unprotected sex with multiple other men.

He tested positive for COVID-19 on July 2. That same day, he began developing a rashes and blisters all over his body, prompting him to visit an emergency room three days later. There, he tested positive for COVID-19 once again the next day, then later tested positive for monkeypox that same day.

Doctors also informed him he had tested positive for HIV. He claimed to have tested negative the last time he was screened in September.

The report in the Journal of Infection said it wasn’t yet clear if having the overlapping infections resulted in worse illness, but that complete STI screening should be done on patients who test positive for monkeypox. “Our case emphasises [sic] that sexual intercourse could be the predominant way of transmission,” the doctors wrote.

The man was also previously infected with syphilis in 2019. (RELATED: Man’s Nose Rots After Monkeypox, Syphilis And HIV Infection)

Emerging scientific research increasingly indicates that monkeypox is primarily transmitted via sexual intercourse between men. Approximately one in five men who have contracted monkeypox reported having ten or more recent sexual partners, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.