clear up on their own — absent any treatment.
As for David, “I had 17 spots on my body that I could see. I didn’t have a fever or aches. But at the height of my pain when peeing we’re talking like razor blades passing through your urethra. There was a five-day period where it was [expletive] unbearable. We’re talking like grown men crying. It was awful.”
RELATED: Biden Administration Declares Monkeypox a Public Health Emergency
‘Sounding the alarm’
Of the three men, Watson’s illness was the most severe.
After his symptoms worsened, Watson went to the emergency department at Chicago’s Northwestern Hospital, hoping to get an antiviral medication called TPOXX.
Though it is part of the U.S. Strategic National Stockpile as an approved treatment for smallpox, the drug has never been formally tested on monkeypox in humans. “So it’s only for off-label use, which means only certain doctors can prescribe it,” Watson notes. “It was like 130 pages of paperwork for authorization. I had no idea how difficult it was going to be to get it.”
That situation could soon get easier, however: On Friday, federal health officials announced they are taking steps to streamline the process to obtain TPOXX.
Watson was admitted to the ER overnight. “At that point, my throat was closing up, and I was worried that it would get to the point that I might not be able to breathe,” he says. A battery of blood tests, X-rays and intravenous fluids ensued, but the next day he succeeded in getting a two-week supply of the first and only anti-pox medication in the United States.
Things began to quickly turn around.
“I took the first dose that night and by the next morning I could actually eat,” Watson adds. “Not without some pain and discomfort, but I could eat. And the lesions started to completely reverse course and disappear.”
Watson is now 18 days out from his first symptoms. “I still have rectal pain, though. And my biggest thing now is one lesion on my left foot. But I would say a full week out on the medicine and my pain was down to a 4. Still really uncomfortable, but not searing pain. My mouth is cleaned up. I don’t have a breathing concern. And I have three and a half days left of the meds.”
When Watson was diagnosed he was just one of only 140 confirmed cases of monkeypox across the United States. Just two weeks later, almost 5,200 Americans are known to have been infected, with similarly explosive increases seen around the world.
It’s sobering numbers like that that motivated all three men to tell their stories.
“I think it’s important to take your health into your own hands. So I’ve been posting about it a lot on social media, sharing my experience within my circle of friends. Sounding the alarm,” Watson says. “And at least by letting people know what getting this has been like for me, I’m hopefully making people more knowledgeable, and more aware.”
To learn more about the monkeypox outbreak, visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.