Published: Less than 10 min ago
Two children in the United States have been infected with monkeypox.
It involves a toddler in California and a non-US resident infant tested in Washington DC
The children are being cared for in hospital but are said to be fine. It is not clear how they were infected, but the health service believes that the transmission may have taken place in the homes. Other details are not known.
To date, over 2,800 cases of monkeypox have been recorded in the United States. At least eight of them are women. The vast majority of cases reported internationally have been men who have had sex with men.
Contagious via bedding
James Lawler, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, says the virus can also be spread through close physical contact and through towels and bedding. In Europe, there have been at least six cases of monkeypox among children under the age of 17.
In Africa, monkeypox has been more common in children, as well as in the general population. Doctors have noted that children more often become seriously ill or die as a result of the disease compared to adults.
Lawler believes that older adults may fare better because they were vaccinated against smallpox as children, which most likely gives them greater protection against monkeypox as well. They stopped vaccinating against smallpox when the viral disease was eradicated 40 years ago.
Cases in 71 countries
Until May of this year, monkeypox had never been known to cause any major outbreaks outside of central and western Africa, where the disease has existed for decades.
During the spring, however, an unusually high number of cases of monkeypox were found in several countries outside Africa. The majority of cases have been reported in Europe, just over 10,600. On Thursday, the WHO’s expert committee met to assess whether the outbreak, with reports of infected people in 71 countries, should be classified as a global health crisis. When the conclusions from the meeting will be presented is unclear.
Until Thursday, 77 cases of monkeypox have been confirmed in Sweden. All cases are men in the age group 20–65.