For weeks infectious disease experts told the public monkeypox is largely transmitted by skin-to-skin contact.
However, health experts now believe monkeypox is spread through anal and oral sex between men.
NBC reported:
Sex between men, not skin contact, is fueling monkeypox, new research suggests
The claim that skin-to-skin contact during sex between men, not intercourse itself, drives most monkeypox transmission is likely backward, a growing group of experts say.
Now, however, an expanding cadre of experts has come to believe that sex between men itself — both anal as well as oral intercourse — is likely the main driver of global monkeypox transmission. The skin contact that comes with sex, these experts say, is probably much less of a risk factor.
In recent weeks, a growing body of scientific evidence — including a trio of studies published in peer-reviewed journals, as well as reports from national, regional and global health authorities — has suggested that experts may have framed monkeypox’s typical transmission route precisely backward.
Since the outset of the global monkeypox outbreak in May, public health and infectious disease experts have told the public that the virus is largely transmitting through skin-to-skin contact, in particular during sex between men.
Now, however, an expanding cadre of experts has come to believe that sex between men itself — both anal as well as oral intercourse — is likely the main driver of global monkeypox transmission. The skin contact that comes with sex, these experts say, is probably much less of a risk factor.
In recent weeks, a growing body of scientific evidence — including a trio of studies published in peer-reviewed journals, as well as reports from national, regional and global health authorities — has suggested that experts may have framed monkeypox’s typical transmission route precisely backward.
On Wednesday, The Gateway Pundit reported that eight children were infected with monkeypox including an infant child under the age of 2, citing a report from ABC.
At least eight children in the U.S. have now tested positive for monkeypox, after health officials in Harris County, Texas, confirmed to ABC News that a presumptive case had been identified in a child under the age of 2.
The news of the positive pediatric case in Texas comes after a child in Martin County, Florida, has tested positive for monkeypox, according to state health data. The child in Florida is between the ages of 0 and 4 years old, according to the state health data.
Officials in Maine also announced Friday that they, too, had confirmed a positive monkeypox case in a child. No further information about the case has been released due to concerns over patient privacy, officials said.
“Maine CDC [Center for Disease Control and Prevention] is working to identify any others who may have been exposed and make vaccination available to close contacts,” officials wrote in a press release.
In addition to the cases in children reported in Maine and Florida, two cases have been confirmed in California, as well another two in Indiana, and a case in a non-U.S. resident reported in Washington, D.C.
So are officials investigating these cases?
And what about the dog that got monkeypox?
Scientists have reported the first human-to-pet transmission of monkeypox when the dog of a gay French couple became infected after sharing a bed with its infected owners.
It is suspected that the gay men, ages 44 and 27, caught the virus as a result of having sexual contact with other men during their non-monogamous relationship.