CDC Says Schools Don't Require New Guidance with Monkeypox as U.S. Cases Surpass 15,900

Mar. 15, 2025

As the school year begins, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released new guidance for monkeypox for schools and childcare facilities.

The current risk for children in the United States getting infected with monkeypox is low despite total national cases surpassing 15,900. With children returning to school, the national public health agency says settings serving children should follow their “everyday operational guidance” to reduce the spread of infectious diseases.

“This includes children, staff, and volunteers staying home when sick, ensuring access to adequate hand washing supplies, including soap and water, maintaining routine cleaning and disinfection practices, identifying private spaces for assessment of an ill child away from others, and providing personal protective equipment (PPE) for staff who care for students with infectious diseases,” the CDCwebsitestates.

If a childcare facility reports a care of monkeypox, the agency urges administrators to notify staff and parents, and contact the local health department to assist with contact tracing. Those who have been exposed don’t need to stay home if they are not exhibiting symptoms.

Any child who develops symptoms should isolate until the lesions formed from the virus scab over, “have fallen off, and a fresh layer of healthy skin has formed,” which could take up to 4 weeks after symptoms began.

“Staff who are monitoring a child or adolescent should avoid close contact, if possible, but continue to attend to the child in an age-appropriate manner,” the CDC says.

Additional guidance for monkeypox in settings with children were detailed on the CDC website in a series offrequently asked questions.

Dr. Michael Chang, infectious diseases physician at UTHealth Houston and Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital, previously spoke to PEOPLE about how much children are at risk to contract the virus, and whether schools and childcare facilities could become a hotspot.

“Historically speaking, there were more monkeypox cases documented in kids in endemic countries — where monkeypox circulates regularly — than adults. But with this current outbreak, that doesn’t seem to be the case. Pediatric patients are very rare so far of all the cases that have been documented. So I wouldn’t consider them to be at higher risk of contracting the disease but they can definitely get infected.”

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“For back to school, I think there’s still very, very, very low risk,” Chang said. “One, the probability of any one child going to school with active monkeypox is very low. And two, the amount of exposure you would need for it to spread within a school is probably … you’re probably never going to achieve that.”

Fortunately, children who do contract monkeypox recover really well without any treatment and complications are rare, he said, while noting that most data comes from countries where the virus is endemic, or regularly found in the area.

Chang added, “Please be sure your children are up to date onallthe vaccines that they’re eligible for, like chickenpox and COVID-19, so that you can minimize any concern about other types of infections going forward.”

source: people.com