A top Chinese health official urged people to avoid physical contact with foreigners to prevent contracting the monkeypox virus after China confirmed its first case on Sept. 16.
Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist at the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention, urged people to avoid “skin-to-skin contact” with individuals who had traveled overseas within the past three weeks, Reuters reported.
“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 posted on the Chinese social media platform Weibo.
China confirmed its first case of monkeypox on Sept. 16, involving a 29-year-old Chinese national who returned to the southwestern city of Chongqing from Spain. Authorities refused to disclose the patient’s gender….