Author: Qian Tongxin

Recently, the number of monkeypox infection cases in mainland China has risen sharply to more than 100, causing great concern. At present, monkeypox cases are mainly concentrated in Guangdong and Beijing, all male, and there have been no severe cases and deaths.

However, experts say that indigenous transmission of monkeypox should still be alarmed, especially in special populations. Experts also stressed that the publication of information such as patient identity privacy is of little help to the prevention and control of monkeypox epidemic.

According to the monitoring of monkeypox epidemic in June released by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, in June this year, 6 new confirmed cases of monkeypox were reported in Chinese mainland, including 6 cases reported in Guangdong Province, 106 cases reported in Beijing, 48 cases reported in Jiangsu Province, 45 cases reported in Hubei Province, 8 cases reported in Shandong Province and 2 case reported in Zhejiang Province.

Just a week ago, the number of monkeypox cases reported in my mainland was only 10. For the rapid increase in monkeypox cases, a public health clinical expert told the first financial reporter: "The virus has hidden local transmission, mostly in special groups. ”

Monkeypox is mainly confined to men who have sex with men (MSM) and is transmitted through sexual contact. The Guangdong Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported two cases of monkeypox infection on June 6 in Guangzhou City, and Beijing reported two monkeypox infection cases as early as June 10, one imported case and the other an associated case of imported cases. This means that monkeypox has been circulating insigently since early June.

Shi Guoqing, deputy director of the Health Emergency Center of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said that the current round of monkeypox epidemic is mainly transmitted through close contact between men who have sex with men, and of the 6 cases reported in June in mainland China, 106 cases are clearly men who have sex with men, of which 101 cases have a history of male sex 96 days before the onset.

"One of the difficulties in the prevention and control of monkeypox infection in China is that the cooperation of special groups may not be very high." An epidemiological expert who is concerned about the monkeypox epidemic told First Financial Reporter.

Professor Xu Jianqing, a researcher at the Institute of Biomedical Research of Fudan University and director of the Shanghai Institute of Emerging Recurrent Infectious Diseases, told the first financial reporter that the reason why this round of monkeypox virus transmission is hidden is because the symptoms caused by monkeypox virus are mild, so it is not easy to attract attention, unlike some other viral infections that will have obvious respiratory and other symptoms, such as cough and fever.

Although monkeypox is usually transmitted only by contact, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) surveillance results believe that this round of monkeypox also has the opportunity to be transmitted through the respiratory tract, that is, droplets may also transmit monkeypox virus.

Professor Lu Hongzhou, president of Shenzhen Third People's Hospital, told First Financial Reporter that monkeypox virus enters the human body from broken skin and mucous membranes, so the transmission between people is mainly through close contact. The cases reported so far are mainly transmitted through sexual behaviour, particularly men who have sex with men. However, other modes of transmission, such as respiratory droplet transmission, vertical mother-to-child transmission, and indirect contact transmission of pollutants cannot be ruled out.

Lu Hongzhou further added: "While monkeypox cases worldwide have now fallen to low levels, there has been an increase in monkeypox cases in the Asia-Pacific region this year. Thus, Chinese mainland recent sudden increase in monkeypox cases is also associated with spillover transmission and increased mobility of monkeypox outbreaks in other regions. ”

In response to whether the local transmission of monkeypox will cause further expansion of the scale of transmission, Lu Hongzhou told the first financial reporter: "There is a possibility of further increase in local cases in a short period of time, but even if the scale of cases expands, it will peak in a short period of time and gradually decline, and the risk of large-scale epidemics in the future is very low." ”

Lu Hongzhou also stressed that for monkeypox infection cases, the disease control department does not need to publish private information such as the identity or activity trajectory of patients to prevent and control the epidemic, because monkeypox is mainly transmitted through close contact, and the risk of infection among the general public is small, and the release of this information is less beneficial to the prevention and control of monkeypox.

Lu Hongzhou suggested that the response to monkeypox epidemic is mainly to establish a disease prevention and control system. "First of all, port cities and disease control departments continue to strengthen the prevention and control of monkeypox epidemics, and do their best to trace infected people and close contacts; Establish sentinel points in hospital dermatology and venereal disease departments to strengthen the early detection of monkeypox infected people; In addition, through the media, strengthen the public's knowledge about monkeypox virus, do a good job in health education for high-risk groups, and cut off the transmission route through safety protection measures. He told the first financial reporter.

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