A Harris County child younger than 2 years old is presumed positive for monkeypox, officials announced Tuesday.
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo speaks during a press conference about growing Monkeypox infections Monday, July 25, 2022, at Houston TranStar headquarters in Houston. Hidalgo and Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner asked the federal government for additional vaccine doses due to rising, but still relatively small, numbers of cases. “We need more vaccine,” Turner said. He said they were watching growing caseloads in other major American cities.
The case is awaiting confirmation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The child is the eighth in the U.S. to have tested positive, according to ABC News. The virus is most prevalent among men who have sex with men, but officials have warned that other groups can still be infected. “It opens up a lot of questions about how this is spread,” Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said during a news conference. “It makes people very worried. It makes things very tangible. The fact of the matter is, we always knew that any person in this community can contract monkeypox ... so this isn’t entirely unexpected.”Hidalgo said the child was not at day care or any school setting, and the mode of transmission remains unclear.
The child’s family members are helping the county with contact tracing efforts. So far, others who have been in contact with the child have not tested positive, Hidalgo said. All direct contacts are being offered the vaccine, which can be administered to people under age 18 who are at high risk of infection.
Monkeypox can spread from person to person through prolonged face-to-face contact, intimate contact or close contact with the infectious rash, scabs or body fluids. It can also spread through contact with items such as clothing or linens that previously touched the rash or bodily fluids. Symptoms include a rash or sores that can look like pimples or blisters and may be extremely painful. Fever, headache, weakness, chills and swollen lymph nodes are also among the symptoms.
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