CDC publishes resource for mpox in children, adolescents
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CDC researchers published a resource for providers that outlines the epidemiology and clinical features of mpox in children and adolescents and how it can be diagnosed and managed.
“Mpox has been spreading in 2022 in ways that it did not previously spread and very widely throughout the globe, so while we know that mpox” — WHO’s updated name for monkeypox disease — “is rare in kids and teens ... we feel that it certainly deserves our attention,” Amy M. Beeson, MD, an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer in the CDC’s Bacterial Diseases Branch, told Healio.
“We really wanted to provide health care providers who work with kids and teens with some resources to help guide them if they encounter people with questions about mpox, or if they find themselves faced with a case or think a patient may have mpox,” Beeson said.
Beeson and colleagues conducted a literature review and found 22 cases of mpox in children and adolescents that had happened before the current outbreak.
“We noted in our review of the cases that five out of those 22 had complications, or severe disease, and that included abscesses and ocular complications, and in one case involving a young infant, encephalitis and pneumonia, leading to death,” Beeson said. “So, we think it's important to pay attention to these potential complications of impacts in children.”
Still, Beeson noted, the emerging literature from the current outbreak is “mostly good news.”
“It looks like children and adolescents over age 1 who don't have immunocompromising conditions don't seem to be at substantially increased risk of severe disease in this current outbreak of mpox,” Beeson said.
“It's also great news that we have tools that really are effective to prevent entry of mpox. In particular, the Jynneos vaccine appears to be safe, and it works. Early in the outbreak, we did not have a lot of data to help guide people making difficult decisions about vaccinations, particularly in children, but we're at a point where over 1,000 children have received the Jynneos vaccine in the U.S. in this outbreak and there haven't been any serious adverse events reported.”
Beeson and colleagues said continued surveillance at every level is required to navigate the epidemic.
“Even though mpox is slowing down globally, and certainly slowing down in the United States, people of all ages should be aware of this really circulating virus and how it may show up in kids and teens,” Beeson said. “First, while it's rare, we should know how it presents” — a rash with lesions that progresses through multiple stages and can be localized or diffuse, as the researchers describe in the paper — “and be on the lookout for it, and then secondly, be on the lookout for prevention opportunities.”