At first, symptoms hinted at common skin infection: Doctor who diagnosed Delhi’s first monkeypox patient

The 34-year-old resident of west Delhi who became the first in the union territory to have contracted monkeypox infection in the national capital was first diagnosed with erythema multiforme—a skin reaction triggered by an infection or drug—because his skin eruptions did not initially look like monkeypox lesions, the doctor who treated the patient alerted the government authorities said.

Dr Richa Chaudhary, a dermatologist who runs a private skin clinic in west Delhi, said that the patient first came to her on July 16 with skin eruptions all over his abdomen, legs, thorax, genital area, and palms.

“He came to me fearing that he had caught chickenpox but I could tell it was not that. My first diagnosis was erythema multiforme, which also shows similar skin eruptions and I put him on a five-day course (of medicines),” the 37-year-old medic said.

On July 21, when the patient came back after completing his five-day medicine, his skin lesions had increased in size, had become painful and were filled with an opaque fluid, Dr Chaudhary said. The lesions were not present on his face, as is usually seen in monkeypox patients, but were only limited to his body.