US identifies first case of monkeypox in children
Cases of monkeypox virus disease in the United States have been identified for the first time in children -- toddlers in California and infants who are not residents of the United States, health officials said Friday.
US identifies first case of monkeypox in children
The two cases are unrelated and likely the result of domestic transmission, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a statement. The agency said the children are in good health and are being treated.
Monkeypox, which causes flu-like symptoms and skin lesions, was mainly spread by men who had sex with men in the recent outbreak, outside of West and Central African countries where the disease is endemic. The disease is spread mainly through close contact.
So far this year there have been more than 14,000 cases of monkeypox in more than 60 countries and five deaths in Africa.
In a conference call, Dr. Jennifer McQuiston, deputy director of the CDC's Division of Pathogens and Principal Pathology, said it was not surprising that cases of monkeypox in children had emerged, but "to date, there is no evidence that we are seeing the spread of this virus outside the gay, bisexual and male communities. -other men who have sex with men.
He said 99 percent of the 2,891 confirmed cases of monkeypox in the United States involved men who had sex with men, but there were some transgender women and men who contracted the disease.
The White House Coordinator for COVID-19 Response, Dr. Ashish Jha, in the same conference call, said the government had delivered 300,000 doses of the monkeypox vaccine and was working to expedite the delivery of a further 786,000 doses from Denmark.
He said there was already enough vaccine available to give the first dose of vaccine to more than half of the eligible population in New York and more than 70% of the eligible population in Washington.
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