Peter Kelly was still recovering from COVID-19 when a case of monkey pox gave him the “worst pain” of his life.
The 28-year-old Toronto resident had just returned to work as a dancer and fitness trainer in late May when he developed a fever.
“I was so delirious,” she said in an interview, describing the agonizing symptoms associated with the disease and the feeling of isolation during about three weeks of home quarantine.
“I must have been really sick and I didn’t even know it. For two days I didn’t really move, I just went to the toilet and went back to bed and slept some more. I had a very high fever and night chills. . I was wearing a winter jacket in bed, I was very cold.”
Kelly’s fever broke on the third day and soon after she said she noticed a red rash. He said he immediately started looking online for what the rash might be.
“You start Googling this and that’s the worst thing you can ever do.”
Doctors suspected it was herpes, which Kelly said “scared” him.
“That started to really affect my mental health because you can’t cure it. You can only control it over the years.”
But he looked at the pictures more closely and wondered if it was monkey pox.
He went to the local hospital and told the authorities, “I need a smallpox test, please.” The result came back positive.
Kelly said she was one of the first people in Ontario to be infected with the virus and is now part of a study of former patients being conducted at St. Michael from Toronto.
The Public Health Agency of Canada has recorded more than 600 cases of monkeypox, or MPXV, as it’s known in the scientific community, since the first report in early June. Quebec has the highest number of cases with more than 300, followed by 230 in Ontario, 40 in British Columbia and a dozen in Alberta. The disease has been reported mainly among men who have sex with men.
There are more than 6,000 laboratory-confirmed cases worldwide and three people have died from the disease, according to data from the World Health Organization. Local transmission of monkeypox has been reported without epidemiological links to countries that have previously reported monkeypox, such as western or central parts of Africa, he said.
Kelly said her rash and injuries were some of the most painful things she’s had to endure and that just rolling was “excruciating”.
It was when the rash started turning into boils that the pain became unimaginable, she recalled.
“That’s when the pain throbbed. And I mean throbbing,” he said. “It felt like an electric shock. I probably didn’t sleep for 30 hours or something. It was so painful. I had a towel between my teeth trying to hold it, just to sway from the pain. But I couldn’t. You don’t handle it. It was crazy.”
An injury to his left foot began to pool blood because he had to put his weight on it to walk, he said.
Adding to the physical pain is the mental stress, he said.
Other than visits to hospitals and clinics, Kelly remained isolated in his small apartment in Toronto.
“I felt helpless because they were telling me to isolate myself for God only knows how long and I’m in excruciating pain,” she said.
During those three weeks, Kelly said she lost all her dance and training work, but her bills kept piling up.
She was spending $50 a week at her building’s coin-operated laundromat and $120 on bandages and sterile supplies.
Friends dropped off food, groceries and coins for the laundry. Toronto Public Health gave him a grocery store gift card, even though he didn’t know how to use it while in isolation.
As one of the first diagnosed cases of monkeypox in Toronto, Kelly said he felt like “I was a bit of a guinea pig.”
He was told to “triple bag” all his trash and label it as hazardous waste, because a team would pick it up, he said.
Kelly said she “definitely” contracted the virus in a bathroom. “I got it because I like having sex,” she said.
While she received a lot of support, she also received some hateful messages on social media.
“‘You have the gay pox,’ or ‘you’re disgusting,’ or ‘you deserve it,'” he said recalling some of the messages.
Kelly said there was a stigma attached to contracting monkeypox, and she initially worried how people would react to her infection. But decide to be open about it.
“I’m going to explain it to someone because there are more people, it’s not me. They’re in the same situation at home isolated and there’s no one to talk to. There’s no resources or anything.”
He said he would like the government and public health agencies to devote more resources to fighting the spread of monkeypox.
His period of isolation ended on June 21, and Kelly said he found a new appreciation for the outdoors.
“I’m just getting on with my life.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on July 22, 2022.
Hina Alam, The Canadian Press