BEIJING, Aug 16, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - 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.

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.