China Reports Its First Monkeypox Case

China Reports Its First Monkeypox Case

The number of monkeypox cases is steadily decreasing in this country.

The number of new monkeypox cases in the U.S. are down nearly 50 percent since early August, according to federal health officials.

CDC data shows the nation’s seven-day average for new cases peaked on Aug. 10, with 461 cases. As of Sept. 14, that figure was 170.

“We approach this news with cautious optimism,” Rochelle Walensky, MD, director of the CDC, said during a Sept. 15 press briefing, adding that some areas of the U.S. are still seeing growth. “We continue to closely monitor data on this outbreak, those at risk, and how prevention measures are being used.”

Meanwhile, China is reporting its first case.

Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, wrote on China’s Twitter-like platform Weibo on Saturday that the country’s Covid-19 restrictions and tight border controls had thus far prevented the spread of monkeypox — until a case “slipped through the net.”

That case was detected in the southwest municipality of Chongqing. An “international arrival” was under mandatory Covid-19 quarantine when the infection was discovered, according to local authorities — however, they did not say whether the person was a foreign or Chinese national.

Wu initially told Chinese not to touch foreigners.

It prompted Dr Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CCDP), to tell the public to avoid ‘skin-to-skin contact’ with foreigners.

Posting on the Chinese social media platform Weibo on Saturday, he added avoiding such contact was considered part of a ‘healthy lifestyle’.

‘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,’ the full guidance read.

It was later softened, following backlash over the comments online, to avoiding ‘intimate’ contact with foreigners or other people returning from countries where monkeypox cases had been reported.

In other infectious disease news, economists are not optimistic about China’s return to normal anytime soon, given the continuing lockdowns of major cities.

“Xi Jinping has staked his personal legitimacy on zero-Covid at all costs, including to damage the economy. To back down now, especially before the mRNA vaccines kick in, could be a political catastrophe, with or without a third term for Xi,” James Zimmerman, a partner in the Beijing office of Perkins Coie and former chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, told Barron’s.

…“It’s been clear for a while that Beijing’s zero-Covid policy will likely not disappear till China has mRNA vaccines and is able to jab enough people that the risk of widespread outbreaks is stamped out,” said Shehzad Qazi, managing director of consultancy China Beige Book.

“This probably pushes the timeline of any rollback well into next year. China watchers who predicted a relaxation around the NPC have again been proven to be disastrously wrong (for their clients),” he told Barron’s.

Hong Hao, chief economist for Hong Kong-based Grow Investment Group, concurred that the policy could remain in place for longer than expected, adding that because of China’s rigid but efficient control measures, somewhere around 99% of the population have no natural immunity to the virus. By comparison, a recent report by the University of Washington School of Medicine estimated that 95% of Americans have been infected, which confers immunity for months if not years.

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