China is suddenly dealing with another public health crisis: mpox

• Published in: MIT Technology Review.com
• Main Author: Yang, Zeyi
• Format: Newspaper Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge Technology Review, Inc 01.08.2023
• Subjects: Contact tracing; COVID-19 vaccines; Disease prevention; Epidemics; Global health; Immunization; Infectious diseases; International relations; LGBTQ community; Monkeypox; Public health; Quarantine; Sexually transmitted diseases; Social networks; STD; Beijing China; Asia; Europe; China; Japan; Taiwan; Hong Kong China

(Mpox has been endemic in West and Central Africa for decades and remains so.) “Overall, compared to where we were last year, we’re definitely in a different place,” says Krutika Kuppalli, an infectious-disease physician and chair of the Infectious Disease Society of America’s Global Health Committee. According to data collected by the WHO, China reported 315 new mpox cases from May to July. [...]similar to what happened in the US and Europe, that association is consistently misinterpreted in China to suggest that mpox is only an STD spread by gay men through sexual activities—a particularly dangerous connection, as the LGBTQ community is increasingly targeted in the country. To efficiently stop the spread of mpox, public health officials need to strike a delicate balance between destigmatizing the disease by dispelling the idea that it affects only gay men and prioritizing the MSM communities that are most vulnerable to it. [...]he explains, since the government has not provided a budget to help cover the quarantine, as it did with covid, patients have no choice but to pay for the hospital stay and all medical tests out of their own pockets.