Michael Angarone, DO: Monkeypox Infection, Public Awareness, and High-Risk Patients

During an interview with HCPLive, Michael P. Angarone, DO, elucidated several important clinical factors that clinicians may want to observe in high-risk patients struggling with infectious diseases such as monkeypox.

Angarone’s discussion was drawn from his presentation for Pri-Med Midwest 2022, during which some of his major talking points included emerging infectious diseases.

Angarone works as an Associate Professor of Medicine at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine, with much of his research covering fungal infections, infections in organ transplant and stem cell recipients, and sexually-transmitted infections.

“I think high risk patients…can sometimes be a little bit of a bellwether for how bad an infection or an emerging infection can get,” he said. “I think we’re dealing with infections that we know are starting to come back that are known to cause a problem like monkeypox, for example. I think in people that are immunosuppressed, people who have HIV, it’s that rash that’s going to be worse than the rash in someone who doesn’t have HIV. The manifestations are going to be different than in someone who’s not immunosuppressed.”

He went on to describe presentation of monkeypox symptoms in patients also dealing with HIV infection, which Angarone describes as often more pronounced.

Angarone also described his views on public awareness of infectious diseases, including transmission, risk factors, and causes. He then went into questions for patients to discuss with their health care providers.

“I think the big thing for the public to pay attention to and to address with their provider is really ‘What is it that we know about these infections? How do they transmit? What is the type of illness that they cause? And am I at risk for this?’” he explained. “Obviously, when these infections are new, we don’t know a lot. And so that’s going to change very rapidly.”

Watch the full interview with Dr. Angarone to find out more about his Pri-Med Midwest presentation.