America’s first prominent monkeypox patient is an actor from Los Angeles –

The first US monkeypox patient to publicly reveal her fight against the tropical virus, criticizing health officials for “poor” work in virus tests, with many cases going undiagnosed.

Matt Ford, an independent actor who splits his time between Los Angeles and New York City, has spoken up to warn people that the disease “suffers” and they should “take it seriously.”

He criticized the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for inadequate testing efforts, saying it took three days to diagnose his disease and then “already knew” what to say next.

Explaining his diagnosis to BuzzfeedFord, he said he contracted the virus after “skin-to-skin contact” with another patient.

The actor and writer, who describes himself as a “proud and openly gay man”, explained that he initially noticed spots in and around his “underwear area”, suggesting he had the virus.

Over the next few days, they spread to the rest of the body, including the face, arms, hands, and stomach.

He counted 25 pimples in total and said that after they appeared, they “started to fill with pus” and itch. Many of them – especially in the “sensitive area” – were in so much pain that they could not sleep at night without painkillers.

“I think I counted 25 in total, and there are more sensitive areas that hurt the most. They hurt so much that I had to go to my doctor to put the painkillers to sleep, it’s really painful.’

Ford also developed flu-like symptoms in the early stages, including fever, chills, night sweats, and cough.

He is currently in isolation at home and most of the symptoms have largely disappeared but will remain there until the patches heal and the crusts go away.

When she first noticed symptoms on June 17, cases of monkeypox in America had tripled. But many scientists cautioned that this is probably a “light estimate” as the CDC does so few tests each day.

The CDC has been unable to keep up with the virus, testing about 60 monkeypox a day last week. However, it has now sent more swab kits to private labs as it aims to get the test to tens of thousands a day.

Ford showed spots on his stomach (left) and arm (right). There were about 25 in total, he said, which exploded all over the body.

Ford said one of the spots around his “private” area was taking painkillers because it was causing so much pain he couldn’t sleep. Pictured above is her arm with monkeypox warning signs.

Ford slammed the CDC’s virus monitoring on BuzzFeed, saying, “Many friends and acquaintances [have] they have also been contacted to say they have or have been exposed.

Matt Ford is pictured above before he contracted monkeypox. He says he lives in Los Angeles and New York.

“While it was reassuring to know I wasn’t alone, I was also concerned that too few cases were counted.”

He added in a TikTok video: “According to my doctor… the CDC is doing a really bad job of keeping track of how many cases there are.

†[This is] due to lack of testing and often not being at the top.’

Ford is the first monkeypox patient in the United States to be identified and listed in a national publication.

He described his symptoms and said, “You can see these.” [spots] Thankfully these heal faster on my face.

“And then these are on my arms and hands, as you can see – they’re not really cute. I have one here in my stomach. And I only have a few left on my body.

A day after being warned that he was exposed to the tropical disease, Ford said he started experiencing flu-like symptoms, which is why he had to go to the doctor.

Doctors did a Pap smear on Monday, June 20, but were not able to diagnose it until the next Thursday, 23, at which point she “already knew” she was infected.

Later, a nurse started checking on him on the phone every day, and he was also ordered to stay home until all his symptoms had resolved.

America has now recorded 351 cases of monkeypox. But scientists fear there are many undiagnosed infections in the country.

Ford is pictured above with spots on his face due to illness. He made a social media video to reveal his diagnosis

Another Chicago-based patient took to social media with her diagnosis, but chose to remain anonymous, using the pseudonym “that gay doctor.”

The medical literature warns that as long as there are signs, the monkeypox virus can be transmitted. They cannot be declared completely clean until their stains are peeled off.

Ford said he started taking baths and pain relievers regularly to help relieve the pain of his blemishes, but it was “this way” to help him.

The symptoms began to subside about a week after they appeared, he said, but now he’s waiting for the final wounds to heal.

The CDC has been repeatedly criticized for its testing regimen, which many doctors initially discouraged from seeking testing.

The grueling process requires that a patient’s sample is first tested for an orthopox virus, a family of viruses that includes monkeypox, at a local lab. If the result is positive, the sample is sent to the CDC for approval.

Critics say the process also requires doctors to report suspected cases to health departments and decide whether they meet the monitoring criteria for orthoox. It may also include calling public helplines and answering extensive questionnaires, which can be slow and cumbersome to dissuade doctors from asking for tests.

The Washington Post reported that health officials made about 10 monkeypox swabs on the day the outbreak began.

This rose to 60 per day last week, but remained well below the required number as the epidemic continued to grow.

The United States has so far recorded 351 cases of monkeypox, another 45 in the last 24 hours. New York and California are facing the biggest outbreaks.

But experts fear that this is just the “tip of the iceberg” and that many more infections in the population go undetected.

Experts say that as the virus that causes the rash spreads under the radar, it could become a “linked” sexually transmitted disease in the community, as the warning signs can be easily ignored.

Dr. Epidemiologist Jay Varma of the Weill Cornell School of Medicine in New York said early signs of infection are “harmless” and have an increased chance of getting lost in hard-to-see places like the inside of the anus.

This gives the virus that causes the rash a window through which it can infect others before more serious symptoms such as flu-like symptoms and rashes appear all over the body.

The tropical disease is also helped by the lack of STI tests in the United States, which means many cases go undiagnosed, Varma added.