Monkeypox virus infections in children and adolescents in the United States are rare, and young patients with known infections have all recovered, according to a study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In addition, evidence suggests that secondary transmission in schools or childcare facilities may be unlikely.
The study was the first comprehensive study on the impact of monkeypox on children during the 2022 outbreak, according to a statement emailed to this news organization from the California Department of Public Health, one of the state health departments that partnered with the CDC to share information.
News of low infection rates and relatively mild disease was welcome to clinicians, who had braced for severe findings on the basis of sparse prior data, according to Peter Chin-Hong, MD, a professor of medicine and an infectious diseases physician at the University of California, San Francisco.
“We were on heightened alert that kids may do poorly,” said Dr. Chin-Hong, who was not involved in the study but who cared for monkeypox patients during the outbreak. “I think this study is reassuring.
“The other silver lining about it is that most of the kids got infected in the household setting from ways that you would expect them to get [infected],” Dr. Chin-Hong said in an interview.
However, Black and Hispanic children were more likely to contract the disease, underscoring troubling inequities.
“Early on, individuals of color were much less likely to be able to successfully access vaccination,” said first author Ian Hennessee, PhD, MPH, an epidemic intelligence service officer with the CDC and a member of the Special Case Investigation Unit of the Multinational Monkeypox Response Team at the CDC. “We think those kinds of structural inequities really trickled down towards the children and adolescents that have been affected by this outbreak.”
The study was published in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
A nationwide look at the data
The researchers discussed 83 children and adolescents with monkeypox who came to the CDC’s attention between May 17 and Sept. 24, 2022.
The 83 cases represent 0.3% of the 25,038 reported monkeypox cases in the United States over that period. Of the 28 children aged 12 years or younger, 18 (64%) were boys. Sixteen children were younger than 4 years.
Exposure data were available for 20 (71%) of those aged 0-12. In that group, 19 were exposed at home; 17 cases were due to routine skin-to-skin contact with a household caregiver; and one case was suspected to be caused by fomites (such as a shared towel). Exposure information was unavailable for the remaining case.
Most of the children experienced lesions on the trunk. No lesions were anogenital. Two patients in the youngest age group were hospitalized because of widespread rash that involved the eyelids, and a patient in the 5- to 12-year-old group was hospitalized because of periorbital cellulitis and conjunctivitis.
Among those aged 13-17, there were 55 cases. Of these patients, 89% were boys. Exposure data were available for 35 (64%). In 32 of these patients, the infection occurred from presumed sexual contact. Twenty-three of those adolescents reported male-to-male sexual contact. No case was found to be connected with sexual abuse.
Lesions in the adolescents were mostly truncal or anogenital. Six in this group were hospitalized, and all of them recovered. One adolescent was found to be HIV positive.
Black and Hispanic children accounted for 47% and 35% of all cases, respectively.
Eleven percent of all the children and adolescents were hospitalized, and none received intensive care.
Treatments, when given, included the antiviral drug tecovirimat, intravenous vaccinia immune globulin, and topical trifluridine. There were no deaths.
Ten symptomatic patients attended school or daycare. Among these patients, no secondary transmissions were found to have occurred. Some contacts were offered the JYNNEOS monkeypox vaccine as postexposure prophylaxis.
Limitations of the study included potentially overlooked cases. Data were collected through routine surveillance, children frequently experience rashes, and access to testing has been a challenge, Dr. Hennessee explained.
In addition, data on exposure characteristics were missing for some children.