China steps up monkeypox procedures, calling on travellers to announce contact with cases
- WHO deems the monkeypox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern as the virus is reported in over 75 countries
- Close contacts are called to step forward to declare potential exposure and importers are urged to sanitise goods, containers and vehicles
The General Administration of Customs on Sunday announced new prevention measures in an attempt to stop the disease being introduced into China.
The announcement said people travelling from countries with monkeypox outbreaks who had been exposed to cases or had symptoms of monkeypox should voluntarily declare their contact to customs when entering the country.
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WHO declares monkeypox a global health emergency as the agency raises its highest-level alert
People bringing all means of transport from countries with monkeypox outbreaks who were either infected or suspected of being infected with the disease, as well as the owners of containers and goods, should carry out prescribed sanitation treatments, the notice said.
Customs says it will change port prevention and control measures and procedures “in real time”, depending on the state of the outbreak.
Monkeypox virus could become entrenched as new STD in the US
“We have an outbreak that has spread around the world rapidly, through new modes of transmission, about which we understand too little, and which meets the criteria in the International Health Regulations,” WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.
Monkeypox is a zoonotic viral disease that occurs mainly in the tropical rainforest regions of central and western Africa. In early May, Britain reported confirmed cases of monkeypox, followed by more European and American countries.
Some 75 countries and regions around the world had reported more than 16,000 monkeypox cases – including five deaths from the virus – to the WHO, the organisation said on Saturday.
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What is monkeypox and should we be worried that it’s spreading?
Monkeypox spreads through close contact, including direct physical contact with lesions and respiratory secretions through face-to-face contact, as well as the touching of objects contaminated with monkeypox lesions or bodily fluids, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. The virus can also be transmitted to the fetus through the placenta.
Some 95 per cent of monkeypox cases have been spread through sexual activity, primarily but not limited to men who have sex with men, according to a study published last week in The New England Journal of Medicine.
Although many of the recent outbreaks appear to be related to sexual contact, monkeypox has not been identified as a sexually transmitted disease.
Symptoms not previously associated with monkeypox are being reported in cases around the world, leading to missed and misdiagnosed cases, according to a Bloomberg report last week.
