The U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention released details Monday on how a Florida infant contracted monkeypox and struggled with full body lesions.
The child in Brevard County, diagnosed in August, is the youngest in the state to have the virus, although 27 confirmed cases of monkeypox in pediatric patients younger than 15 now have been reported in the United States during the 2022 outbreak.
The child has since made a full recovery.
Doctors admitted the Florida child to the hospital for a rash on the arms, legs, and trunk which had been present for five days. The rash spread and turned into lesions all over the baby’s body, including the back, soles of feet, face, eyelids and forehead. A PCR test confirmed monkeypox 10 days after the rash first appeared, according to the CDC report.
After a monkeypox diagnosis, doctors treated the child with an IV medication called tecovirimat, which also is given to adult patients as well.
The first case of monkeypox in Florida arose in Broward County in May. Health officials continue to contact trace and learn more about how monkeypox is spread. It is spreading mostly in the community of men who have sex with men, but monkeypox can infect anyone. It spreads through direct skin-to-skin contact with an infected person’s rash or bodily fluids, or indirectly through uncleaned surfaces that their rash has touched, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says.
It can cause flu-like symptoms and rashes that look like blisters.
In the infant’s case, the CDC investigators traced the history of the caregivers and learned one had a fever, followed by a rash, in the three weeks before the infant showed symptoms and was confirmed with monkeypox. The baby had skin-to-skin contact with the caregiver through holding and daily care activities.
The report says health officials may have averted further spread of monkeypox by vaccinating all close contacts of the baby.
Nationally, most cases in children are due to household transmission, Dr. Ulyee Choe, director of the Florida Department of Health in Pinellas County said during a news briefing last month.
Demand for monkeypox vaccination has slowed since its initial surge when the federal government began to release doses of Jynneos in July. Gaps getting the shot to communities of color persist. The vaccine is a two-dose series and some people who have received shots using a new method to stretch doses have had reactions.
The CDC is warning pediatricians to be aware that pustular rashes in children could be monkeypox.
Florida now has nearly 2,400 suspected or confirmed cases of monkeypox in just 3 1/2 months with 654 in Broward County. The Brevard case is the only one in the state involving a child younger than 15.
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