Monkeypox is endemic in parts of Africa, but this year more than 15,000 cases have been reported in countries that historically don’t see the disease.
In the U.S. and Europe, the vast majority of infections have happened in men who have sex with men, though health officials have stressed that anyone can catch the virus.This week, doctors in the Netherlands published of a boy who was seen at an Amsterdam hospital with about 20 red-brown bumps scattered across his body. It was monkeypox, and doctors said they could not determine how he got it.
In Africa, monkeypox infections in children have been more common, and doctors have noted higher proportions of severe cases and deaths in young children. One reason may be that many older adults were vaccinated against smallpox as kids, likely giving them some protection against monkeypox, said Dr. James Lawler, an infectious disease doctor at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
Smallpox vaccinations were discontinued when the disease was eradicated about 40 years ago. So, children since then have not been vaccinated against smallpox and wouldn’t have any such protection against the related monkeypox virus, Lawler said.The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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