Monkeypox Photo: VCG

The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Chinese CDC) on Thursday announced 127 new monkeypox cases were reported nationwide in October, dropping for a second consecutive month since August’s peak of 501 new cases, with the analysis on which showing 90 percent of the cases identified involved male-to-male sex. 

According to the surveillance report of monkeypox epidemic between October 1 and 31 released by the Chinese CDC, the 127 new monkeypox cases were reported from across the country, including 17 cases in South China’s Guangdong Province, 16 cases in East China’s Shanghai Municipality, 15 cases in East China’s Zhejiang Province, 13 cases in capital Beijing, 12 cases in Southwest China’s Sichuan Province, and 54 cases in 15 other provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions. 

There was no serious case or deaths reported. 

The epidemiological investigation and analysis on the cases show that 98.2 percent of the cases are male patients and 90 percent cases were identified as involving male-to-male sex. Only two cases are female patients. 

The analysis also shows that there is low risk of transmission with other modes of exposure. Only two cases of infection occurred in close contacts other than sexual contact. 

A total 97. 2 percent of the patients were diagnosed of the disease when they took the initiative to seek medical treatment and only 1.8 percent were traced down through contact tracing. The remainding cases were self-reported. 

The vast majority of the cases have typical clinical manifestation of fever, herpes, swollen lymph nodes and other symptoms. 

Since Southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality reported the first monkeypox case on the Chinese mainland in September 2022, the number of monkeypox infections had continued to rise, peaking in August this year at 501 cases. It was also in this August that the five monkeypox infections in female were reported for the first time in China. 

Global Times