Avoid contact with foreigners to reduce risk of monkeypox, Chinese health official says.

In an example taken on May 23, 2022, test tubes labeled “monkey virus positive and negative” were seen. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

BEIJING, Sept 19 (Reuters) – A top Chinese health official advised people to avoid physical contact with foreigners as much as possible to avoid contracting monkeypox after China’s first known case of the virus was reported on Friday.

“To prevent monkeypox and as part of our healthy lifestyle, 1) it is recommended to avoid direct skin-to-skin contact with foreigners,” Wu Zunyo, chief epidemiologist of China’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said on the official Weibo page on Saturday.

Wu also asked people who have been abroad in the past three weeks to avoid “skin-to-skin contact” with strangers.

“Strengthening surveillance and prevention of monkey epidemics at the social level is important and very important,” he wrote.

His post was widely shared across social media over the weekend, but the comments section under the original post was disabled on Sunday and early Monday in Beijing.

Some who have commented on his posts or screenshots have asked why foreigners in China, many of whom are long-term residents who have not recently left due to COVID-19 barriers, are more dangerous than locals.

Wu did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the matter, sent to his social media account on Monday.

The southwestern city of Chongqing recorded a monkey virus infection in a person who came from abroad on Friday.

The municipal health commission said in a statement that the person was quarantined upon arrival in Chongqing, so the risk of transmission is low. All close contacts are isolated and under medical observation. Read more

About 90 countries where monkeypox has not occurred have reported outbreaks of the virus. More than 60,000 confirmed cases have been reported and some non-endemic countries have reported their first related deaths. Read more

Reporting by Martin Quinn Pollard; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise

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