All of the effort the effort the WHO put into renaming monkeypox was for nothing.

Monkeypox cases and exposures are rising in Mecklenburg County, according to the health department.

Health leaders report the virus has “risen steadily in the region” since the beginning of 2024.

Ten cases were reported among county residents in February, up from six in January. Nearly 120 residents, including children, were potentially exposed to those 16 confirmed cases, reports stated.

While Mecklenburg County Public Health director Dr. Raynard Washington told WBTV that the cases are isolated, what is concerning is that this time children are being infected. This most likely due to exposure to an infected adult.

There have been 16 confirmed cases of Mpox since the start of the year in Mecklenburg County.

At least 120 people have been exposed. Of those, 40 of them were children, officials said.

“I don’t want to create mass panic,” he said. “I don’t want every parent to say, ‘I’m not sending my kid to school because I’m worried about it, or they can’t get on the school bus,’ or whatever the case might be … ‘can’t go to church or the rec center.’ That’s not the message we’re trying to send.”

The message is tailored more for adults. The kids were exposed because an adult likely went to work at a school, preschool, or daycare and caught the disease.

“The individual who was infectious was around those individuals for an extended period of time,” Washington said.

Interestingly enough, while a vaccine was made available, last month a study published in the scientific journal Cell attributed the slow down of monkeypox spreading two years ago was largely attributed to gay and bisexual men refraining from sexual intercourse. Most recently, scientists have now determined that the virus can be spread among sexually active heterosexuals resulting from a recent outbreak in the Congo.

PHOTO CREDIT: A clinical presentation of monkeypox – By CDC – https://www.cdc.gov/poxvirus/monkeypox/index.html, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=63385319