Kids can get monkeypox too
Not even your little ones are exempt from monkeypox. (Photo: USAID/El Salvador via Flickr)
If you think that monkeypox (MPX) to children is going to be just like COVID-19, where you get the worst flu of your life and they get away with a little sniffle thanks to their robust immune systems, we implore you to rethink that notion. Worse, if you think your kids can’t get monkeypox because they are neither gay nor fully grown men, we implore you to forget everything you know at this point and read up on the right stuff immediately.
Kids can get severe COVID just as they can get MPX too. As of July 26, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported more than 80 kids across several countries with MPX, mostly through household contacts.
Though it has been spreading mostly through sexual networks around the world, children getting it means that anyone else can get it. It’s a given how easily MPX can spread in households where towels, meals, and hugs are—ideally, but not in these circumstances—shared.
With schools and daycares reopening, kids being kids are expected to catch all sorts of diseases from each other, including MPX. If your kids have COVID precautions down to a pat by now, they should just keep doing those plus these added steps to keep safe from the pox.
MPX can spread through pregnancy and childbirth, too. It can be transmitted from the mother to the fetus during pregnancy or to infants during or after birth. It can also cause complications in babies, including severe diseases and stillbirth.
A not so child-friendly history
Historically, pediatric cases were pretty common in parts of Africa where MPX is endemic or spread primarily from animals to humans. The first human case was a child in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1970. In the 2003 outbreak in the US—the first one recorded in the western hemisphere—more children were hospitalized with severe MPX than adults, according to a study in Clinical Infectious Diseases.
We can’t forget either that adults over 40 have already been vaccinated for smallpox, which adds to their cross-immunity against MPX. Smallpox vaccines aren’t part of babies’ routine immunizations anymore since the virus was successfully eliminated in the 80s, so now its cousin is back for revenge.
The changing nature of the MPX virus can make recognizing cases harder. We’ve also yet to find out how it may really affect kids when more of them get it.
Treatments for MPX, namely Bavarian Nordic’s vaccine Jynneos, and Siga’s antiviral Tpoxx, are available and safe for kids too, but in limited supplies. The WHO recommends targeted vaccination for those who are more at risk first, including health workers, laboratory workers, and people with multiple sexual partners.
As we prepare for a wider outbreak, experts stress the importance of equitable access to vaccines more than ever (we’re looking at you, Global North). Add in the dire need to de-stigmatize this disease ASAP, and we should be able to prove that we, as a species, can still learn from our mistakes.
