Toronto Public Health hosted two vaccine clinics on Saturday for those most at risk of contracting the monkeypox virus.
The health unit said the clinics at 519 Church Street and Metro Hall were for adults who identified themselves as men and had sex with other men.
Monkeypox is a rare disease that comes from the same family of viruses that causes smallpox, which the World Health Organization declared eradicated worldwide in 1980, but is generally not easily spread among humans and is instead transmitted through long-term relatives. contact.
“We are trying to avoid stigmatizing gays,” Rita Sahin, Toronto’s health care aide, told CBC News.
“Monkeypox is spread by close human-to-human contact, so close skin-to-skin or face-to-face contact, and anyone can be put at risk. It just so happens that the first cases we see in the community were [among] gay men. “
Toronto Public Health says the virus is not as transmitted as COVID-19.
The health department says symptoms include fever, headache, muscle aches, exhaustion, swollen lymph nodes and a rash that “often occurs within a few days” after symptoms begin.
Clinical photographs show monkey lesions in patients in the United Kingdom during a global outbreak of cases outside the typical endemic regions of the virus in Africa. (United Kingdom Health Security Agency)
As of Friday, Toronto confirmed 26 cases of monkeypox out of a total of 30 in the province. All confirmed cases in Ontario were found in men, according to Public Health Ontario, with cases ranging from 25 to 59 years old.
Vernon Feeney was one of the people in line for the vaccine on Saturday at 519.
“I’m just cautious, as Pride approaches, I just want to make sure I’m safe before the weekend,” Feeney said.
“There will be a lot of parties and a lot of people around, so I think it’s important to get the vaccine in advance.”
Andrew Schmidt of the same clinic also said he wanted to be careful.
“We just want to be prepared for everything that comes with it [virus]”Schmidt said.
“We were scared of COVID and obviously learned our lesson, so we’re just trying to be more active about it.”
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