A child in Maine has monkeypox, health officials say. It's the first pediatric case in the state and possibly New England.
The state didn't release any details about the case when it was announced Friday, including the age of the patient (beyond that they are under 18), where they live or how they may have contracted the virus.
It's Maine's third case of monkeypox. The state's Center for Disease Control and Prevention said that cases in children remain rare and that the broader risk of contracting monkeypox is low.
Children are among those eligible to get the monkeypox vaccine, Jynneos, that's been distributed to Maine and other states.
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The virus is breaking out worldwide, and has caused more than 10,500 infections around the country — none associated with anyone dying, though the infection can be painful and it's been declared a national public health emergency.
Only a handful have been reported in children in the U.S. Maine cited pediatric cases in California and Florida. NBC News has reported that Indiana two pediatric cases were confirmed in Indiana and one, in a baby from abroad, in Washington, D.C.
Experts have not been able to conclude whether monkeypox represents a new type of sexually transmitted infection or disease, though it is primarily spreading through skin-to-skin contact during sex. But it can also be spread through very close contact.
"What the infection does is cause people to break out in these blisters that then open up, and there's virus in the blisters, and so those blisters can be a source of transmission. The virus can get in through attacked skin, just like chickenpox can be spread," Brigham and Women's Chief of Infectious Disease Dr. Daniel Kuritzkes has explained.
