CDC deems Harris County presumptive positive child case false positive: 'This is the first one we've had with monkeypox'

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed on Tuesday that a presumptively positive monkeypox case involving a 2-year-old child in Harris County is a false positive, according to Houston-based media outlets’ reports.

The development came exactly a week after Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo announced that the unidentified child yielded the presumptive result. 

"We hadn't had a false positive," Hidalgo said, Houston CBS affiliate KHOU reported. "This is the first one we've had with monkeypox with all the samples we've sent to the CDC."

According to KHOU, monkeypox false positives are rare, occurring just 4% of the time.

Hidalgo, a Democrat, added that the county will make the vaccine for the disease more accessible to others. Last week, she said that the county’s first presumptive positive child case and Texas’ seventh was rare.

It remains unknown how the child contracted the illness.

Houston ABC affiliate KTRK reported that the CDC additionally confirmed that the young patient doesn’t have monkeypox.

A rash prompted the child’s parents to seek medical attention – and even at the time of the presumptive positive test result – officials expected the child to make a full recovery, KTRK reported.

Harris County’s stockpile has at least 10,000 vaccines.

Citing The Associated Press (AP), ABC News reported that the World Health Organization (WHO), which had declared monkeypox a public health emergency, is planning to rename the virus in response to stigmatization concerns.

The U.S. declared its outbreak a national emergency earlier this month, per the report.

KHOU reported that on Saturday Texas logged over 1,000 monkeypox cases.

According to the Texas Department of State Health Services, the station reported, the Houston area accounted for 450 of those cases.