Two children test positive for monkeypox in the US, CDC confirms

Two children have tested positive for monkeypox in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed Friday.

One is a toddler from California, while the other is not a resident in America. Neither had contact with each other.

Health officials said both children were ‘doing well’, and had likely caught the virus from ‘household contacts’.

Revealing the infections during a virtual event today, Dr Rochelle Walensky said the children had contact with gay or bisexual men — the community where most cases are being detected in the current outbreak. 

It was not clear when they caught the virus, or what symptoms they suffered.

They are the first cases among children — who are thought to be more at risk from monkeypox — to be detected in America. A boy under 10 years old tested positive for the virus in the Netherlands in June. He suffered more than 20 red lesions on his face, forearms and thighs but had no fever or swollen lymph nodes — with the infection mostly clearing within a week.

Revealing the infections at a virtual event for the Washington Post, Walensky said: ‘We have seen now two cases that have occurred in children.

‘Both of these are traced back to individuals who come from the men-who-have-sex-with-men community, the gay men’s community.’

She added that these cases have been on the whole ‘adjacent to the community most at risk’.

In a press release this afternoon, health officials said: ‘CDC and public health authorities are still investigating how the children became infected.

‘While both children have monkeypox symptoms, they are in good health.’ 

Last week the CDC said it was only aware of monkeypox infections among adults, mostly in gay or bisexual men.