Can children get monkeypox?

New Delhi, July 26: As the Monkeypox cases raise globally, questions are arising about whether the infection can affect vulnerable groups like children.

The answer is yes. Though monkeypox has been spreading primarily among men who have sex with men, health officials warn the virus can infect anyone - including women and children.

There have been some cases of monkeypox infection among children, but the number is low globally.

Unlike Covid, monkeypox doesn't spread to children easily, unless they are in close contact with someone who has the virus, or come into direct contact with infectious sores.

While, there is no evidence to claim that the healthy children are at risk for serious outcomes from monkeypox, it is true that people who have not had small pox vaccination are more likely to catch the virus.

"(There are) no evidence that it is common in children. Small pox vaccine Jyennos does help against the monkeypox virus, but it is currently not available in India. The precautions are the same as chicken pox prevention like droplets and the vesicles which are infective," Dr Preetham Kumar Reddy, Paediatric intensivist, Rainbow Children's Hospital, told India Today.

Dr Reddy, however, notes that the case fatality rate is higher in children as compared to adults.

Monkeypox is a viral zoonosis (a virus transmitted to humans from animals) with symptoms similar to those seen in the past in smallpox patients, although it is clinically less severe.

There are two distinct genetic clades of the monkeypox virus - the Central African (Congo Basin) clade and West African. The Congo Basin clade has historically caused more severe disease and is thought to be more transmissible.