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Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer Theresa Tam has confirmed a total of 278 monkeypox cases in the country as of June 29.
Cases have been reported nationally, including four from British Columbia, five from Alberta, 67 from Ontario and 202 from Quebec, the chief medical officer said Thursday.
Tam reiterated that the risk of exposure to the monkeypox virus is not exclusive to any group or environment, Xinhua news agency reported.
Anyone, regardless of gender or sexual orientation, can become infected and spread the virus if they come into close contact with someone who has monkeypox or have direct contact with their personal or shared items, including towels or bedding, it warned she.
According to Tam, recent epidemiological data show that the majority of cases are men and are between the ages of 20 and 69.
Monkeypox is a sylvatic zoonosis that can cause infections in humans, and the disease is usually found in forested parts of central and western Africa. It is caused by the monkeypox virus, which belongs to the orthopoxvirus family, according to the World Health Organization.
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