Eligible Albertans can now get vaccinated against monkeypox in nine cities across the province.
The vaccines were made available in Calgary and Edmonton in late July, but are now also available in Edson, Fort McMurray, Grand Prairie, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, Red Deer and St. Paul.
Alberta Health says 2,213 Albertans have signed up to receive the monkeypox vaccination so far, and as of Thursday, 1,498 doses had been administered.
The majority of vaccinations took place in Alberta’s two largest cities, with 513 doses in Edmonton and 726 in Calgary, according to Alberta Health.
Alberta has so far confirmed 19 cases of the virus, well below provinces such as Ontario and Quebec, which have 478 and 425 cases, respectively.
Dr. Linora Saxinger, an infectious disease expert at the University of Alberta, says that while the risk is low, she is encouraged by the vaccine’s uptake so far.
“We should be able to prevent infection relatively effectively by giving people vaccines before they come in contact with the virus,” she said.
“That way, you’re protecting the individual and you’re also protecting the community.”
VACCINE ELIGIBILITY
Alberta residents are eligible to receive a monkeypox vaccination if they are 18 years of age and:
- A transgender, cisgender, or two-spirit person who self-identifies as belonging to the gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (gbMSM) community and who meets at least one of the following three criteria:
- You have received a recent (within the last 6 months) diagnosis of a sexually transmitted infection;
- You plan to have, or in the past 90 days have had sex outside of a mutually monogamous relationship; or
- You have visited places of sexual contact in the past 90 days (eg bathrooms, sex clubs) or may plan to or work/volunteer in these settings.
- All sexual contacts of the persons described above, and
- Staff and volunteers in a social setting or place or event where sexual acts between men (persons described above) may occur.
ALBERTA HEALTH’S VACCINATION STRATEGY
To date, most cases of monkeypox have occurred in men who have sex with other men.
This led Alberta Health to change its vaccination strategy recently to offer pre-exposure shots to certain groups of sexually active gay and bisexual men.
Saxinger stresses, however, that the monkeypox virus can spread to anyone through physical contact.
“In past outbreaks, it has actually spread mostly among people who have worked with animals that are infected with the virus, specifically veterinarians and children who play with domestic prairie dogs,” she said.
“It’s not a specific virus for ‘men who have sex with men,’ it’s just the community in which it’s spreading right now, and that’s the community where efforts really need to be focused to try to contain it, before it spreads further.’
REMOVING THE STIGMA
The decision to get the monkeypox vaccine was important for Michael Connolly, who received his first dose two weeks ago.
As a local member of the gay community, he says it was important to do his part, but also to realize that the virus does not discriminate based on sexual orientation.
“Anyone can get monkeypox, and it doesn’t necessarily require sexual contact, so that’s part of the stigma — because you see a lot of people attacking the population of men who have sex with men,” Connolly said.
“It’s very different from HIV or AIDS, and we shouldn’t think that it’s exactly the same or that it spreads the same way. We have to be careful.”
Connolly notes that his experience with Alberta Health Services has been positive, as staff members have been kind and understanding, but others are still encouraging provinces to develop a more inclusive approach to the vaccine.
Dr. Christopher Wells is Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Public Understanding of Sexual and Gender Minorities at MacEwan University in Edmonton.
He says the Alberta government needs to do more to change its messaging around the monkeypox vaccine by better communicating with members of the LGBTQ community.
“The communication has a very demoralizing and judgmental tone,” Wells said.
“It’s certainly not positive about sex, in fact it reinforces a lot of the unfortunate stereotypes people have about gay men being hyper-sexualized and non-monogamous. I think it creates this false dichotomy in the community of what constitutes a ‘good gay’ and a ‘bad gay.'”
Wells adds that the vaccine criteria should be written differently in a more open and inclusive way to reach as many people as possible who want to get vaccinated.
He also mentioned that the process of getting the vaccine involves providing very personal information to health care workers, which can cause members of the LGBTQ community to avoid the vaccine altogether.
“Right off the bat, we know that maybe those who are most at risk for monkeypox won’t step forward and get vaccinated because they don’t want to risk their privacy and they want to ensure their anonymity,” Wells said.
“We have to be careful with this kind of messaging, and we want to be careful that we don’t reinforce outdated stereotypes and do more harm to the LGBTQ community in terms of public acceptance, awareness and inclusion.”
Alberta Health has confirmed it will work with community-based organizations such as Calgary Pride to increase Monkeypox outreach during the festivities, which run from August 26 to September 5.
WHAT IS MONKEY VEROCA?
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, monkeypox is a rare disease first discovered in the rainforests of West and Central Africa.
The West African strain has a one to three percent mortality rate, while the Central African strain has about a 10 percent mortality rate.
Despite its name, monkeypox is actually a misnomer, as it most commonly infects small African mammals and rodents. The virus first got its name in 1957, when two outbreaks of smallpox-like disease were found in macaques eating crabs that were used for research purposes.
The virus is spread primarily by respiratory droplets, although transmission is usually weak. Symptoms include muscle aches, fever, headache, measles-like rash, and swollen lymph nodes.
In May 2022, new cases of monkeypox began spreading across Europe and North America, but the infection is a milder form of smallpox that has seen a gradual increase in cases over the past decade.
Monkeypox is most commonly spread between humans and animals through close contact, touching wounds or body fluids, touching items that have had contact with wounds, or eating infected meat.
The virus can resolve on its own in most cases within two to four weeks, but there is no proven cure or treatment regimen.
According to the National Immunization Advisory Committee, the monkeypox vaccine is a variant of the smallpox vaccine that should be given in two doses one month apart.
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