After the first known case of monkeypox was reported on mainland China last week, a senior Chinese health official advised the public to avoid physical contact with foreigners.
He also asked the Chinese to refrain from “skin-to-skin contact” with people who have been abroad within the past three weeks, as well as all “strangers.”
“To prevent possible monkeypox infection, and as part of our healthy lifestyle, it is
recommended that you do not have direct skin-to-skin contact with foreigners,” Wu
Zunyou, chief epidemiologist at the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention, posted
on his Weibo page. “It is necessary and very important to strengthen the surveillance and prevention of monkeypox epidemic at the social level,” he wrote.
Although his post was widely shared on social media, comments were disabled.
The southwestern city of Chongqing recorded a monkeypox virus infection on September 16 in an individual who arrived from abroad, marking mainland China’s first known monkeypox infection amid the recent global outbreak of the virus.
However, the transmission risk is low, as the individual was put in quarantine upon arrival in Chongqing, the municipal health commission said in a statement. All close contacts were isolated and placed under medical observation.
