Catching monkeypox can mean extreme pain, hospital trips — and weeks of isolation

In late May, not long after he’d gotten through a mild bout of COVID-19, Peter Kelly spiked a sudden fever. He quickly realized it wasn’t the tail end of a COVID infection.

Over a period of several days, the Toronto resident became exhausted, and his muscles began to ache. His temperature oscillated between chills and night sweats. Then, strange sores started to appear on different parts of his body — eventually around two dozen that he could see, mostly on his legs, and painful ones hidden from view in and around his rectum. 

As a professional dancer, Kelly is used to pain.