Monkeypox infection in kids risks worsening global crisis

The widening monkeypox outbreak is sparking concern that the virus could spread among a surprising cohort particularly prone to transmitting contagious infections: kids.

Experts at the World Health Organization said this week that they are watching the potential for spread among children “extremely closely.” Already, more than 80 kids across several countries have contracted monkeypox, largely through household contacts, the agency said in a media briefing.

While that’s a tiny fraction of the more than 18,000 monkeypox cases around the world — with most concentrated among men who have sex with men—the prospect of community transmission is raising the specter that the virus could establish itself in other populations, such as women and children. The disease’s rapid spread has prompted WHO DirectorGeneral Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to declare the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.

“It’s likely that we will see an increasing number of cases transmitted in other social networks and settings” beyond male sexual relations, said Jay Varma, a professor of population health sciences at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York. “No social network is self-contained. They all ‘bridge’ to other networks.”

Anyone can get the virus,

which is characterized by raised sores and sometimes causes swollen lymph nodes or other flu-like symptoms. Though its primary mode of transmission has been sexual networks, it can spread through other forms of contact. Once someone has it

within a household, it’s especially easy for the virus to infect others through sharing clothes or towels, by touching sores or prolonged skinto-skin contact like hugging.

Kids, constantly interacting at schools and day-care centers, may be especially vulnerable.

Charles Bouessel/AFP via Getty Images/TNS A child affected by monkeypox sits on his father’s legs while receiving treatment at the center of the International medical NGO Doctors Without Borders in Zomea Kaka, in the Lobaya region, in the Central African Republic on Oct. 18, 2018.