Corentin felt the first symptoms about three weeks ago after having sex with a man. “It started with a phase of high fevers and body aches“, he explains. Symptoms close to those of Covid but a test invalidates this first hypothesis. Then “lesions have appeared in the anal mucosa“, intense pain “not knowing how to sit, lie down, walk“, confides Corentin. These symptoms appeared on June 21, during the music festival, he recalls.
>> Monkey pox: eligible populations, waiting times, injection methods… Five questions about vaccination
According to Public Health France, 912 cases of monkeypox are now confirmed on French territory, a sharp increase compared to the figures published on Wednesday July 13. Faced with the rise in cases, France announced at the beginning of July the extension of vaccination from this week, in vaccination centers referenced online.
Following this phase which Corentin thought was a simple “hemorrhoid crisis“, pimples appear on his body like “acne pimples that we have touched too much“. After the appearance of these pustules, he decides to go to the hospital “three or four days later“because the pain was unbearable. The doctors then decided to take a sample. The verdict came four days later: it was monkeypox. A week passed between the appearance of the first symptoms and the verdict.
Once the diagnosis was made, his condition not justifying hospitalization, Corentin had to confine himself to isolation at home for three weeks.If I had had the info on prevention, I would have been tested sooner“, he regrets.
“If I had been told what the symptoms were, I would have been tested sooner”
Corentin judge believes that prevention should be strengthened. IHe expressed his concern about the lack of information related to the disease: “I no longer count the people who come to see me since I expressed myself on social networks, to ask me the symptoms, to know if their symptoms correspond to the disease“, confides the young man. “I still referred to emergencies, assures Corentin, about fifteen people who, to date, have monkeypox“. He wants the authorities “put the packet at the information levelnot”.
Now, Corentin is doing better and after his recovery, he plans to get involved with associations for information and prevention actions aimed at homosexual people.