00:00 The Chinese government is battling a new public health concern, mPox.
00:04 mPox was formerly known as monkeypox.
00:07 The WHO had changed its name to mPox in 2022 to remove the stigma that monkeypox comes
00:13 with and to deal with the possible misinformation about how it is transmitted.
00:19 Almost exactly a year after the WHO declared mPox a public health emergency and just a
00:24 few months after it scaled back that status for mPox, the hotspot for the outbreak has
00:30 quietly moved from the US and Europe to Asia.
00:33 China in particular is experiencing a concerning increase in mPox cases right now.
00:38 WHO reports that China is currently experiencing the world's fastest increase in cases of mPox
00:43 and it needs to act fast to contain the spread.
00:46 While cases of mPox continue to decline across the United States and Europe, infections are
00:51 steadily rising in China.
00:54 WHO data indicate that for the week ending July 21, 117 cases were confirmed in China.
01:00 Between the week ending May 5 and the week ending July 21, 315 cases were reported.
01:07 This comes after just six cases were confirmed throughout all of 2022.
01:12 Additionally, China had the highest increase in the weekly number of cases during the most
01:17 recent week of full reporting and cases have risen more than 50% over the last three weeks.
01:24 mPox has nothing to do with monkeys.
01:26 It mainly spreads from person to person through close contact, including close contact with
01:31 respiratory secretions, skin lesions of an infected person, or recently contaminated
01:36 objects.
01:37 The virus can also be transmitted to a fetus through the placenta.
01:41 It has not historically been a sexually transmitted disease, but about 95% of cases reported in
01:47 Europe and the Americas were infected through sexual contact.
01:51 mPox is less contagious than COVID, but since 2022, more than 88,000 people have contracted
01:57 the disease, which can be painful and even debilitating for some.
02:01 The global mPox outbreak began in the United Kingdom in spring 2022.
02:06 It further spread throughout Europe and eventually to the US.
02:10 At that time, China still had COVID restrictions in place with little travel allowed in and
02:15 out of the country.
02:16 But now the situation is different.
02:18 China isn't so forthcoming as other countries with its disease data.
02:22 It does not publish weekly reports of new cases.
02:25 Rather, it has released a one-time report of the number of mPox cases recorded in June
02:29 - 106.
02:30 The Chinese government did not release data from May and has not released any data about
02:36 July cases yet.
02:38 This further obscures the true toll of mPox in China, even though it is critical during
02:43 an infectious disease outbreak to be on top of things as soon as possible.
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