A senior Chinese health official advised people to avoid any “direct skin contact with foreigners” after the first case of monkeypox was reported in the country.
And last Friday, China reported the first case of monkeypox in a man who had recently entered the country and was quarantined.
The chief epidemiologist of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Wu Zunyu, made several recommendations “for the prevention of monkeypox infection.”
“Avoid direct skin contact with foreigners,” he wrote on the Weibo social network.
Wu Zunivu, a symbol of the fight against Covid-19 in China, urged residents to avoid this kind of contact with people who have been abroad in the past three weeks, as well as with “unknowns”.
He stressed that China’s strict COVID-19 policy with border restrictions and mandatory quarantine upon arrival has so far avoided outbreaks of monkeypox throughout the country.
His post was widely circulated on a Chinese social network over the weekend, with the comment feature on the original post disabled.
Among the comments written on the screenshots of his post, some denounced “discrimination” while others pointed out that a large number of foreign workers living in China were unable to leave the country after the introduction of restrictions against the coronavirus.
“Does (Wu Zongivu) know that many foreigners have visited China in recent years?” asked a Chinese netizen.
The original Weibo post has been changed, apparently to put an end to the controversy. And the leaflet warned against direct contact with “foreigners who have recently returned (within the past three weeks) from areas where monkeypox cases are reported abroad and may be infected.”
And the Chongqing City Health Commission announced in a report that a man with monkeypox was diagnosed after he developed symptoms, including a rash, and the case was classified as an “imported infection.”
The report stated that the patient is “under central isolation in the hospital and is in stable condition”, noting that the “risk of transmission is low”.
The disease initially causes an increase in body temperature and quickly progresses in the form of a rash with scales. It is often benign and usually heals in two or three weeks.
The World Health Organization records cases of monkeypox around the world. As of September 7, there have been 54,709 injuries and 18 deaths from the disease in 125 countries, 98% of which are in Europe and North America.
