THE Chinese mainland reported 491 confirmed monkeypox infections in July, compared with 106 cases in June, according to data released by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Wednesday.

No severe cases or related deaths have been reported since June, data shows.

The jump in infections in the past two months is a result of the stealth transmission of the virus among men who had sex with other men, active testing and reporting among high-risk groups and the increasing risk of imported cases from overseas, the China CDC said in a notice released on its official website.

The 491 infections in July were scattered in 23 provincial-level regions. In July, all cases were in males, and 96.3% of them were men who had sex with other men.

The risk of transmission through other channels was low, as none of the close contacts who were not involved in sexual contact with confirmed patients ended up getting infected.

(China Daily)