Monkeypox '100 times worse' than Covid, warns US man

New York: 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 disease left him suffering a 101F fever, headache and swollen lymph nodes making him look "like a frog" just two days after he was told he had been exposed, NBCDFW reported.

Calling it the "most traumatic experience" that lasted 10 days, he noted that he felt as if someone was sticking needles in his body.

"By Day 2, I started running a 101 (degree) fever and that lasted for three days. There was a constant headache. Lymph nodes were swollen like I was a frog," he was quoted as saying.

A day or two later, he got severe blisters.

"The pain and tenderness was constant," Shannahan said. "It's like someone took a ball of needles and kept on stabbing you with it."

Compared with Covid infection, which he got last year, Shannahan said monkeypox is "100 times worse". "This was a totally different level of extreme fatigue." He has managed to get a vaccination for the monkeypox, the report said.

In an interview with KHOU 11 news, Shannahan said he doesn't know how he contracted the disease.

"I was at bars. I was going to pool parties. I did attend a music event over the weekend and recently all of those people have been becoming positive," Shannahan was quoted as saying.

The Dallas Health Department notified him that he had been exposed to the virus.

"Apparently it was a contact-tracing phone call," Shannahan said.

Shannahan said he spent the last three weeks under quarantine grappling with symptoms he recounted as "complete hell"

"You have these blisters that are inflamed and anytime it grazes something or touches something, it literally feels like someone is taking a potato peeler to your skin," Shannahan was quoted as saying.

"The entire pain was just constant," he said.

The infection, which is spread through bodily fluids and prolonged contact, has been largely spread among gay men, but Texas just reported its first case in a woman, the report said.

"It definitely is something that we need to be paying attention to. This is not just a gay illness, this is not something that just affects gay men that have sex with men. This is definitely something that can affect everybody," LGBTQ advocate Austin Davis Ruiz told KHOU 11.