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The Imvamune vaccine will be available to people in Quebec who are in close contact with confirmed or suspected cases of monkeypox.
The situation with monkeypox in Quebec is worrying, said the interim director of public health, Dr. Luke Boylo. Photo by Pierre Obendrauf / Montreal Gazette
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There are 25 confirmed cases of monkeypox in Quebec, while another 30 are under investigation, public health authorities said on Thursday.
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Fourteen of the cases are in the Montreal area, said Genevieve Bergeron, a medical officer for emergencies and infectious diseases in the city’s public health department. Analyzes are currently underway to determine if the cases are related, she said on Thursday.
The announcement comes just a week after Quebec confirmed its first two cases of monkeypox, a virus that is usually endemic in parts of West Africa. Most of the cases in Quebec were found in men who had sex with other men, although one of the patients was a child who had recently been in contact with friends from school, Dr. Luke Boylo, interim director of public health in Quebec.
“This is a serious outbreak,” Boalo told a news conference in Montreal on Thursday. “We think this is a serious situation, but it is not the same as the situation with COVID. A huge number of cases is not expected soon. That is why we believe it can be eradicated. I mean, hopefully it can be. So we have to be very careful with this problem and insist that infected people will really be careful with their contacts. “
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Monkeypox is spread by close, prolonged contact with an infected person. It can also be transmitted by droplets, said Caroline Kuach, a microbiologist and professor at the University of Montreal. Symptoms include fever; rash with blisters on the face, arms, legs, eyes, mouth or genitals; swollen lymph nodes; headache and muscle aches.
The incubation period for monkeypox usually lasts five to seven days, sometimes extending to 21 days, Boalo said. In most cases, the disease disappears on its own within two to four weeks. Complications can occur “in very rare cases,” Boalo said.
This is only the second known outbreak of the disease in North America in the last two decades. The first, which occurred in 2003, affected 71 people in many US states. It was tracked to rats imported from Ghana and housed near prairie dogs in Illinois. Prairie dogs were sold as pets and later developed signs of infection.
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“It’s a little disturbing,” said Donald Vin, an infectious disease specialist and medical microbiologist at McGill University Health Center, in an interview. “In the last week we have had an increase from zero to 25 confirmed cases. For a disease we have never seen in Canada before, this seems to be a relatively large increase. What we see now is a wave effect. We are not at the beginning of the wave, but we are somewhere along the way. The question is, how many more patients are there? “
Because smallpox is closely linked to the virus that causes smallpox, smallpox vaccine can prevent people from contracting the disease or make it less severe.
Quebec has received its first doses of the Imvamune measles vaccine from the federal government, and vaccination could begin as early as Friday, Boalo said on Thursday. “Several hundred doses of the vaccine were delivered on Tuesday, although no widespread vaccination campaign is planned,” Boalo said.
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High-risk contacts with a confirmed or probable case of smallpox can be vaccinated with a single dose of Imvamune within four days after exposure, according to recommendations made by the Quebec Immunization Committee. A second dose can only be given if the risk of exposure is still present 28 days later.
Doctors in Quebec have been required to report cases of monkeypox since May 19, when the province launched an epidemiological investigation.
At least 12 countries – including Australia, Belgium, Portugal and the United Kingdom – have reported cases of monkeypox in the past two weeks. As of Saturday, the World Health Organization counted 92 confirmed laboratory cases in several regions of the world. The cases have been identified “mainly but not exclusively” among men who have sex, the WHO said.
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Quebec is investigating several possible links, including patient trips to the United States, Belgium and Mexico, Bergeron said.
Health officials, who briefed reporters on Thursday, warned against stigmatizing the gay community.
“Stigmatization is counterproductive,” Bergeron said. “Our enemy is the virus. People are not affected. “
“It is quite unusual that we are seeing this disease in many countries at the same time,” Bergeron said. “We are very early in the process of understanding these connections, but we are looking at them and gathering information,” to understand how the disease got here, she said.
Authorities provided little details about the infected child, other than saying they were attending a school in Greater Montreal. The child is in isolation, Boalo said.
“We are investigating and mobilizing resources to make sure action is taken,” Boalo said. “At the moment, things are being done very carefully and strictly.”
ftomesco@postmedia.com
The Canadian press contributed to this report.
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