China to screen arrivals for mpox symptoms
Asia
By
AFP
| Aug 16, 2024
China announced Friday it will begin screening people and goods entering the country for mpox over the next six months, just two days after the World Health Organization declared the virus a global health emergency.
People travelling from countries where virus outbreaks have occurred, who have been in contact with mpox cases or display symptoms should "take the initiative to declare to customs when entering the country", China's customs administration said in a statement.
READ MORE
Gold rush: How illegal gallbladder trade threatens Lake Victoria fishers
Real estate posts high productivity as challenges hit wholesale, retail sectors
How container cash deposits are creating a problem for Kenyan traders
Agencies in fresh plan to market Kenyan coffee
AI-driven smart borders transform travel security
Fresh test for Ruto as IMF urges new tax policies to unlock loans
Kenya's nuclear power plan faces significant cost hurdles
Healthcare and business: Diana Okello's journey in aviation medicine niche
How access to credit is boosting tech adoption, earnings for SMEs
'Wrong e-mail address' claim fails to stop Sh283m JKIA tender
Vehicles, containers and items from areas with mpox cases should also be sanitised, the statement added.
Sweden on Thursday announced the first case outside Africa of a more dangerous variant of mpox, with the WHO warning that further imported cases of this new strain in Europe was likely.
The WHO on Wednesday had sounded its highest possible alarm over the worsening mpox situation in Africa, calling it a global public health emergency.
Just a day before, the African Union's health watchdog declared its own public health emergency over the intensifying outbreak.
Mpox has swept through the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the virus formerly called monkeypox was first discovered in humans in 1970, and spread to other countries.
Mpox is an infectious disease caused by a virus transmitted to humans by infected animals, but can also be passed from human to human through close physical contact.
It causes fever, muscular aches and large boil-like skin lesions.
- Nairobi Hospital doctors to strike Monday as hospital insists on operations
- Recycled, replaced and still room for more in Ruto's new Cabinet
- Farmer charged for stealing and injuring a pregnant pig