Editorial | Measured response to first Hong Kong monkeypox case
- The city has a well-organised plan to deal with infectious diseases, so there is no need to panic over a single occurrence of an illness that is not easily spread and seldom fatal
Hong Kong has its first confirmed case of monkeypox, four months after the disease was first reported in other countries where it is not endemic. There is no need for panic.
It does not spread easily like Covid-19. Symptoms are seldom severe and fatalities rare.
Infectious disease expert Dr Wilson Lam says most cases can recover on their own. There is also a vaccine against the virus and the government expects its first shipment soon, after final negotiations with the maker.
Close contacts of confirmed cases will get priority.
But none of this is reason for complacency if the spread of the virus is to be prevented or contained and emergency measures avoided. The World Health Organization warns that this is the first time that many monkeypox cases and clusters have been reported concurrently in both non-endemic places and endemic countries in Central and West Africa, and in widely disparate geographical areas.