In a recent data analysis, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) determined the vast majority of hospitalized monkeypox patients were also HIV-positive.
For the study covering August, September, and October, the CDC provided clinical consultations to 57 patients who had developed severe cases of monkeypox.
And of that group, 82% of monkeypox patients had been infected with HIV.
HIV, or human immunodeficiency virus, attacks the body's immune system and can lead to AIDS, if left untreated.
According to the CDC, the disease is currently untreatable, "but antiviral therapies are available which can suppress HIV activity to where it undetectable and untransmissible."
From that three-month analysis, 95% of the HIV-infected monkeypox patients were male, and 68% were non-Hispanic black.
Also, the CDC noted that 30% of monkeypox patients received intensive care unit-level care; and roughly 25% of the patients had recently experienced homelessness.
Among the 12 patients who died, citing the data analysis, monkeypox was the cause or contributing factor of death for five people, the CDC reports.
"Health care providers and public health professionals should be aware that severe morbidity and mortality associated with monkeypox have been observed during the current outbreak in the United States, particularly among highly immunocompromised persons," the CDC wrote in its report.
From its most recent demographic data, black individuals accounted for the largest share of monkeypox cases — at 44%. After that, white individuals and Hispanic/Latinos were the groups most affected by monkeypox infections.
For some monkeypox patients, the symptoms can seemingly appear out of the blue, and quickly become life-threatening.
In the CDC report, one patient who received a consultation — a "Hispanic or Latino man in his 20s" with no known medical history — had tested positive for HIV in 2020.
The gentleman was originally evaluated at an emergency department with back pain and a rash and was prescribed a course of prednisone, a common steroid medication often used for inflammation.
Soon thereafter, the rash led to a positive test for monkeypox and eventually spread over the man's entire body. He was "soon admitted to a hospital with a nearly 103 degree fever, oral lesions and a mass on his neck," according to the CDC report.
On the second day of his hospital visit, the man was intubated and the smallpox antiviral TPOXX was administered to him.
Despite these measures, "the patient died a few days after being transferred to the ICU," the CDC writes.
According to reports, the United States has a seven-day moving average of 30 monkeypox cases per day, and cases have been tangibly falling since peaking in early August.
As The Hill reports, "nearly all infections" have occurred among men who have sex with other men.
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