Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Dr. Rochelle Walensky stated on Friday that there are two pediatric instances of monkeypox in the country, and that the children have been linked to members of the community of men who have sex with men.
Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Dr. Rochelle Walensky stated on Friday that there are two pediatric instances of monkeypox in the country, and that the children have been linked to members of the community of men who have sex with men.
Two cases are now active. Both of those kids may be linked to members of the gay men’s and men who have sex with men’s communities, according to Walensky.
“And so, when we have seen those cases in children, they have generally been what I call adjacent to the community most at risk. I should also mention, importantly, those children are doing well.”
The CDC describes monkeypox as an uncommon condition brought on by infection with the monkeypox virus, which belongs to the same family as the smallpox virus and has symptoms that are similar to those of smallpox but less severe. Monkeypox is seldom deadly.
The illness was initially identified in 1958, but the first reported human case wasn’t until 1970, and it was primarily exclusive to a few central and west African nations.
According to the organization, international travel and the importation of animals were the main routes of transmission from these regions to other continents.
According to the CDC, there were 16,538 confirmed cases of the illness worldwide as of Friday, including 16,295 instances in 68 nations that have never before reported the infection.
The CDC reports that there are 2,592 confirmed cases in the country.
Contrary to COVID-19, years’ worth of data on monkeypox are accessible, according to Walensky. She added that even though the United States has increased its testing capacity from 6,000 nationwide tests per week to 70,000 today, the demand for tests is still only about 3,000 per week.
