“An adult at a daycare center in the Rantoul area has tested positive for a case of monkeypox,” department director Dr. Sameer Vohra said at a news conference. “We are now screening children and other staff.”
Officials did not say how many children may have been exposed to the virus. The worker is isolated and “doing well”. The nursery has also been cleaned.
Vohra said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has made the monkeypox vaccine available to children “without jumping through the normal hoops in the process,” so parents of children exposed to the virus can vaccinate your children.
“Pediatricians are on site as we speak to screen the children’s cases, and there are mobile tests and vaccines for their families,” he said.
The home worker also works in home health care, and public health officials are in contact with an affected client.
Public health officials asked parents to allow disease investigators to contact them if their child is affected.
“If your child has had the potential to be exposed to this outbreak, you will receive a call from the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District. You do not need to call daycare centers. You do not need to call public health. It will be contact,” said Julie Pryde, district administrator.
Monkey pox is spread primarily through prolonged skin-to-skin contact or through contact with contaminated items.
A few cases have been reported in the United States in women and children during the ongoing outbreak, but the virus has been found predominantly in gay and bisexual men and other men who have sex with men.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are more than 7,500 probable or confirmed cases of monkeypox in the United States as of Friday afternoon.