Canada already has 58 confirmed cases of monkeypox, Canada’s chief public health official said on Friday.
Of the cases identified so far through laboratory tests, 52 are from Quebec, five from Ontario and one from Alberta.
The figure is approximately ten times higher than the five confirmed cases reported by the Canadian Public Health Agency (PHAC) across the country late last month.
While a disproportionate number of cases of this smallpox epidemic have occurred among gays and bisexual men, Chief Public Health Officer Dr Teresa Tam told reporters on Friday that all groups are potentially susceptible to the virus.
“The risk of exposure is not exclusively related to any group or environment. Regardless of your gender or sexual orientation, anyone can become infected and spread the virus if they come into close contact – including intimate sexual contact – with an infected person or their infected objects, “Tam said.
With this warning, Tam said it was important for public health workers to “learn from the HIV experience” and “involve the communities most affected from the outset.”
She said governments must “act quickly” to “stop the chains of transmission” and prevent the virus from spreading further.
“At the moment, this has not exceeded the initial risk groups, but it could happen and we must be ready for it,” she said.
Chief Public Health Officer Dr Teresa Tam (left) said public health officials and governments need to learn from the HIV crisis in their responses to smallpox. (Sean Kilpatrick / Canadian Press)
The World Health Organization (WHO) issued a public health council to gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men last week, urging the community to watch out for certain symptoms – a rash that leaves blisters on the face, arms, legs, eyes and mouth. fever, swollen lymph nodes, headache, muscle aches and lack of energy.
Quebec seems to be the epicenter of this outbreak. The province has begun vaccinating close contacts of infected people – the so-called “ring vaccination” approach – to prevent a wider outbreak.
There, he said Canada has a stockpile of smallpox vaccines ready to spread to other parts of the country if needed.
Smallpox and smallpox belong to the same family of viruses, and the smallpox vaccine has proven effective against smallpox in the past. But this shot has not been in circulation in Canada for decades because smallpox was destroyed here in the late 1940s.
Monkeypox is a viral zoonotic disease that occurs mainly in tropical forest areas. Historically, most cases have been reported in the Congo Basin.
A child affected by monkeypox sits on his father’s feet while being treated at the Medecins sans frontieres (MSF) at the International Medical Non-Governmental Organization (MDF) in Zomea Kaka, Lobaya, Central African Republic, on October 18 , 2018. (Charles Busel / AFP / Getty Images)
The appearance of this virus in Western countries has confused researchers. To date, the WHO has identified at least 550 cases of monkeypox in 30 countries around the world where the virus is thought to be non-endemic.
In a recent interview with the Associated Press, Dr. David Heyman, who once headed the WHO Emergency Department, said the leading theory explaining the spread of the disease is the sexual transmission of two raves among gays and bisexual men. in Spain and Belgium.
“We know that monkeypox can spread when there is close contact with the lesions of someone who is infected, and it seems that sexual contact has already intensified this transmission,” Heyman said.
A senior health official in Madrid said last week that the Spanish capital has confirmed 30 cases so far.
Enrique Ruiz Escudero said authorities were investigating possible links between a recent Pride event in the Canary Islands, which attracted about 80,000 people, and cases at a sauna in Madrid.
UK officials said a “significant proportion” of cases in Britain and Europe were among young men who had not traveled to Africa, who were gay, bisexual or had sex with men.
Authorities in Portugal and Spain also said their cases were among men who had sex with other men and whose infections were picked up when they sought help for lesions in sexual health clinics.
Officials need to better prepare the gay community: experts
Some gay observers said public health officials were not doing enough to directly warn men who have sex with men about the risk of monkeypox.
“Many well-meaning officials seem afraid to say anything homophobic, and news outlets have published articles emphasizing that monkeypox is not a gay disease,” said Jim Downes, a professor of infectious disease history recently in the Atlantic. .
“Their caution is justified, but health agencies put gay men at risk unless they prioritize interventions such as public awareness campaigns, vaccines and tests.
At the start of the month-long Pride celebrations, public health experts James Krelenstein, Joseph Osmundson and Keletso Makofane also said in a recent article in the New York Times that health officials must take bolder interventions to raise awareness and spread the disease. accessibility among men who have sex with men.
Citing the way public health workers mobilized to curb the outbreak of bacterial meningitis in New York a decade ago, those experts called for targeted solutions for the gay community.
“Health officials provide vaccines in nightlife venues and places where men meet for sex,” they wrote. “As summer and Pride holidays approach, we need similar approaches to help protect each other.”
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