Covid, monkeypox and HIV: the first Italian case of coinfection

The first case tested positive for monkeypox, Covid and HIV at the same time is Italian. The 36-year-old man developed fever, sore throat and headache, fatigue and inflammation of the groin area after 9 days of returning from a trip to Spain, where he said he had unprotected sex with men. To describe the case, the first reported in the literature, are the researchers of the University and Polyclinic Rodolico – San Marco of Catania, together with colleagues from the Polyclinic Giaccone of Palermo, in an article in the ‘Journal of Infection’. Three days after the symptoms, the man tested positive for Covid, which he had already contracted in January a few weeks after the vaccine. It doesn’t take long for a skin rash to appear on the left arm and then quickly spread to the rest of the body. At this point he goes to the emergency room of the Catania hospital. Here the tests confirm Covid, but also reveal the positivity to monkeypox and HIV, recently contracted given the negative result of the same test less than a year ago. The patient, who – according to Sicilian doctors – suffers from bipolar disorder and regularly takes drugs for it, was discharged from the hospital after almost a week and recovered from Covid-19 and from monkeypox. He has only a small scar left.