PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — For three straight days, Luke Brown of Manhattan was in the most severe pain he’s ever experienced. He had contracted monkeypox and tried everything to ease his agony.
“I was on Vicodin. I was on gabapentin,” a medicine commonly used to treat shingles, he said. “I was on ibuprofen. I was on acetaminophen. And none of these drugs touched the pain.”
Monkeypox cases continue to climb across the country and around the world. Infections generally clear up on their own in about two to four weeks, but that doesn’t mean cases are mild. An article published last week in the New England Journal of Medicine highlighted dozens of cases in which patients were hospitalized for pain management.
While scouring the internet to find anything to ease his pain, Brown eventually read about a drug called TPOXX (tecovirimat) that can be effective against monkeypox symptoms.
In recent days, following the emergence of stories like his, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention relaxed the process for obtaining TPOXX – but when Brown started his search last week, TPOXX was highly restricted, requiring hours of paperwork to get released from the federal stockpile.
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“My process of acquiring TPOXX was something I hope no one ever has to go through again,” he said.
Most doctors didn’t even know about it, even in New York, an epicenter of the U.S. outbreak. In what he describes as a desperate shot-in-the-dark, Brown went on Instagram and asked for any leads.
“I got a text from a friend who said, ‘Hey, I know a guy who knows a doctor,’” Brown said.
Within days of taking the pills, he says the pain and the lesions were receding.
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“I personally have watched some of the lesions that I have just sink back into my body,” he said of being on TPOXX. “They’ve been hour by hour — I can watch them disappear.”
Brown acknowledged he is only one person with one experience, and he hopes clinical trials will prove what he’s seeing, but efforts in the U.S. are far behind other countries including Canada and the U.K.
While scientists are unsure whether monkeypox can be sexually transmitted, research has indicated transmission through sexual, close contact is the most likely scenario in nearly all cases studied, and severe pain in the anal and genital area is the most common reason why patients end up in the hospital.
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While many clinicians believed in the first weeks of the outbreak there was no potential treatment, the CDC is now working to spread the word to doctors about the availability of TPOXX prescriptions. Brown hopes the ease of restrictions makes it more available to patients who may not be able to advocate for themselves as effectively.
“I suffered, and no one else needs to,” said Brown. “There's some really encouraging progress we've been making.”
Overall, Brown’s message to anyone at higher risk — generally, gay and bisexual men — is not to panic. Get vaccinated as soon as you can and do skin checks twice a day. If you find something concerning like a bump or lesion, talk to your doctor about TPOXX as soon as possible.
Vaccination appointments can be scheduled in Philadelphia by calling the Department of Public Health hotline at 215-685-5488. Vaccines have also been provided to certain health care providers, including Penn Medicine, Drexel, the Mazzoni Center, and Philadelphia FIGHT, to be provided to existing patients at high risk.
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