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LA man opens up about his monkeypox battle
A Los Angeles man warns the public that they don't want to go through what he went through during his battle with monkeypox.
LOS ANGELES - When Matt Ford of Los Angeles was diagnosed with monkeypox, he posted a video on social media that immediately went viral.
"My name is Matt, I have monkeypox. This s--- sucks, and you don’t want it," said Ford.
He went on to show the lesions on his body and explain how painful they were. Ford says he did it for two reasons; to educate the public on this virus, and to tell anyone who’s been exposed to not be embarrassed.
"There's no reason to feel any shame or stigma," he said. "You know, you've done nothing wrong because it's just how the cards fell. But see your doctor, isolate, get vaccinated early on if you can, even if you've been exposed."
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Ford dealt with monkeypox for three weeks. "The first week was more flu-like symptoms, fever, cough, sore throat, full-body chills and night sweats," Ford said. "And as those symptoms kind of abated, more and more lesions started to appear and some of them in more sensitive areas, on more sensitive skin where at worst, were excruciatingly painful and then others, on you know, arms or whatever, at best, really itchy and irritable."
Nationwide, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have confirmed more than 500 cases of monkeypox among men. In California, 111 cases. Riverside County just reported its first case. Monkeypox is spread through intimate skin contact and sexual intercourse. Ford believes more education is needed on this virus.
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"I think we don't know how many there are," he said. "I think a lot more people have it and the CDC is currently reporting (low numbers) due to lags in testing."