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TORONTO — Toronto’s public health department is investigating whether there may be more monkeypox infections at a homeless shelter after confirming a person with the virus recently visited the facility.
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A statement from city officials on Monday said the person was transferred to Toronto’s COVID-19 Isolation and Recovery Centre, which also houses people who need to be isolated because of monkeypox. It said municipal public health and housing officials were investigating “to determine if there are additional cases.”
The city did not identify the shelter, say how long the person had been there or confirm whether the shelter is experiencing a monkeypox outbreak as a result.
Diana Chan McNally, a community worker at a Toronto center for people in need, said the spread of monkeypox in Toronto’s shelter system, in addition to ongoing outbreaks of COVID-19 and other infectious diseases present in shelters, could be “recipe for mass infection.”
“It’s a disease that can affect anyone,” said Chan McNally of All Saints Drop-in. “If you have people in close proximity to each other, sharing space and cramped quarters in the groups, I imagine we’re going to see mass contagion in the system.”
The city said it continues to work with health experts to reduce the risk of monkeypox, COVID-19 and other communicable diseases in high-risk settings such as shelters.
To limit the number of cases at the shelters, the city said it continues to implement prevention and control measures, such as improved cleaning protocols and the use of personal protective equipment. The city also said it is working with specialists to minimize transmission through audits, training and outbreak management planning with shelter providers.
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The Toronto Shelter, Support and Housing Authority is working with Toronto Public Health to determine if a monkeypox vaccination program can be developed for the shelter system, according to the city’s statement.
After monkeypox was confirmed in the shelter system, Chan McNally said people who were left homeless should be among the priority groups for vaccination.
“We need to make sure that shelter hotels don’t close and we need to increase the recovery sites for COVID as well as monkeypox,” Chan McNally said. “We don’t have enough space right now if we’re looking at potentially a mass infection.”
Chan McNally also said the city needs to be more forthcoming with information about the confirmed case on behalf of those entering the shelter system.
“I understand it hasn’t been declared an outbreak yet … but I’m really furious that there’s no information about it,” she said.
“It’s not about me knowing, it’s about people experiencing homelessness who have a right to know if their health could potentially be compromised if they’re currently in this shelter or if they plan to enter the system.”
Ontario Public Health said there were 367 confirmed cases of monkeypox in the province as of Thursday, with nearly 78 percent of the reported cases in Toronto. It said almost all affected people were men, with only two reported in women. The agency said most cases were among men who reported intimate contact with men, but said anyone can contract monkeypox.
The virus usually does not spread easily and is transmitted by prolonged close contact through respiratory droplets, direct contact with skin lesions or body fluids, or through contaminated clothing or bedding.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on August 1, 2022.
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