Chinese Official Urges People Not to Touch Foreigners to Prevent Monkeypox Infection

This 2003 electron microscope image made available by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows mature, oval-shaped monkeypox virions (L) and spherical immature virions (R) obtained from a sample of human skin associated with the 2003 prairie dog outbreak. Cynthia S. Goldsmith, Russell Regner/CDC via AP

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.