Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo announced Tuesday that a child under 2 years old has tested presumptive positive for monkeypox in the county.
In a news conference, Hidalgo said the child’s family has helped the county initiate contract tracing. Health officials still reportedly haven’t identified how the virus was transmitted. Hidalgo said the child hasn’t been in daycare or school and is asymptomatic with a rash. All direct contacts with the child are being offered the vaccine, Hidalgo said.
“This is a rare case. This would be, as best we know, the seventh case in the country in a child, the only case of monkeypox of a child in the entire state of Texas,” Hidalgo said.
Hidalgo said so far, Harris County has seen 269 cases.
In addition, Hidalgo announced that the county will receive about 9,000 doses instead of the 25,000 that was initially promised for a county of about 5 million people.
“I have a responsibility to advocate for this community. Obviously, the number of doses, the lack thereof, is not acceptable,” Hidalgo said.
According to health officials, the threat of monkeypox to the city’s general population remains low. Monkeypox is rare and doesn’t spread easily between people without close, personal, skin-to-skin contact. Symptoms include a rash or sores that can look like pimples or blisters and may be extremely painful, fever, headache, weakness, chills and swollen lymph nodes, HHD said. The illness usually lasts two to four weeks. Officials said it can spread from the time symptoms start until the rash fully heals and a fresh layer of skin has formed.
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In a news conference, Hidalgo said the child’s family has helped the county initiate contract tracing. Health officials still reportedly haven’t identified how the virus was transmitted. Hidalgo said the child hasn’t been in daycare or school and is asymptomatic with a rash. All direct contacts with the child are being offered the vaccine, Hidalgo said.
“This is a rare case. This would be, as best we know, the seventh case in the country in a child, the only case of monkeypox of a child in the entire state of Texas,” Hidalgo said.
Hidalgo said so far, Harris County has seen 269 cases.
In addition, Hidalgo announced that the county will receive about 9,000 doses instead of the 25,000 that was initially promised for a county of about 5 million people.
“I have a responsibility to advocate for this community. Obviously, the number of doses, the lack thereof, is not acceptable,” Hidalgo said.
According to health officials, the threat of monkeypox to the city’s general population remains low. Monkeypox is rare and doesn’t spread easily between people without close, personal, skin-to-skin contact. Symptoms include a rash or sores that can look like pimples or blisters and may be extremely painful, fever, headache, weakness, chills and swollen lymph nodes, HHD said. The illness usually lasts two to four weeks. Officials said it can spread from the time symptoms start until the rash fully heals and a fresh layer of skin has formed.
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