Harun’s nightmare began with a fever, a general sense of being under the weather. Maybe it was Covid, he thought. Then his temperature soared to over 40C, and his muscle aches soon became unbearable. A pimple appeared on his nose, and swiftly spread across his face. He called an ambulance half a dozen times, but none arrived. As his throat became covered in lesions, he could no longer swallow food. It was then he was finally admitted to hospital, and spent 11 days there in agonising pain.
Harun had been infected with mpox – formerly known as monkeypox. There have been more than 3,500 confirmed cases in the UK since last spring, but here’s a crucial detail: it was overwhelmingly men who have sex with men who were affected. An emerging infectious disease, affecting a historically marginalised community, in a Covid-weary media environment – the response to mpox could have been a disaster. Thanks to the government, it very nearly was. But mpox was contained in the UK because of the work of queer campaigners determined not to let a public health crisis or moral panic erupt.
