Monkeypox patient says doctors misdiagnosed him then 'made things worse' by giving antibiotics that caused an allergic reaction

• Jeffrey Todd, a TikToker who documented his monkeypox, called out his medical treatment.
• He told CBS he was misdiagnosed by doctors who prescribed him an unnecessary treatment.

A man who had monkeypox said he developed an allergic reaction after doctors gave him the wrong medicine, thinking he had a totally different disease.

"Doctors were misdiagnosing me left and right," Jeffrey Todd told CBS news.

Todd described the experience as "emotionally distressing" and called for healthcare providers to be better informed about the management of the disease.

"It was too much of a wait, too much of a pause, too much indifference there," he said.

Pimple that wasn't a pimple

Todd had been documenting his monkeypox symptoms on TikTok. His video showing an inch-wide, scabbed-over lesion on his right cheek was widely viewed, attracting more than half a million likes.

He first became aware that he might have monkeypox when a pimple-like bump on his cheek started developing a red ring, he told CBS.

"It looked very much like a picture I had seen on the CDC website," he said.

That night, he developed bumps on his arms and back, as well as body aches and shooting pains, per CBS.

"Misdiagnosing me left and right"

Though his doctor suspected monkeypox, Todd said he didn't receive appropriate medical attention right away.

He said he didn't receive results from his monkeypox test for nine days, in part because the sample had been mishandled.

In the meantime, "doctors were misdiagnosing me left and right," looking for other explanations, he said.

This outbreak of monkeypox does not look exactly like the definition in medical textbooks, so doctors can easily mistake the rash for other diseases, as Insider previously reported.

This is what happened in Todd's case. A physician thought the symptoms could be due to a severe infection from a bacteria called staphylococcus.

He prescribed antibiotics, which would be effective against staphylococcus but useless against monkeypox, which is a virus.

Todd said he developed an allergic reaction to the antibiotics that "just made things worse."

Todd got the approval to use the antiviral known as TPOXX nine days after first seeking medical care.

The tablets are approved for use against smallpox, but not monkeypox, so they can only be prescribed with special permission from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Once he got it, that treatment made him better, he said.

Todd is not alone. Patients have often been misdiagnosed in this outbreak, meaning their symptoms are getting worse without adequate medical support, Insider previously reported.

This form of monkeypox is not thought to be particularly lethal. Still, the disease can cause excruciating pain.

Most patients will get better on their own and won't require antiviral treatment. But prescription of strong painkillers can help them deal with the worst, Insider previously reported.