Quebec to start vaccinating against monkeypox with 25 confirmed cases

Health officials in Quebec say the province could begin vaccinating people against monkeypox as soon as Friday.

The province’s public health director, Dr. Luc Boileau, confirms there are now 25 cases of the disease in province and around 30 other suspected cases are under investigation.

“There are a few cases we’re trying to contain,” says Boileau. “If you’ve been in contact with one of the infected people, we urge you to contact health professionals for an evaluation.”

“This isn’t an unknown virus like COVID was, but it’s something we are taking seriously and we want to contain as quickly as possibly.”

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He says the province has received supplies of the smallpox vaccine from the federal government and will be administering it to people who are close contacts with confirmed cases. The majority of the confirmed infections are in adult men who have been in sexual contact with people who have the disease.

“We have a series of measures aimed at identifying and containing the spread,” Boileau says.

The smallpox vaccine has been proven to be 85 per cent effective in preventing monkeypox. Smallpox was declared eradicated in 1980 and Canada stopped routinely immunizing people against it in 1972.

Dr. Caroline Quach, the chair of Quebec’s immunization committee, says the vaccine has been shown to prevent monkeypox in animal studies if it is administered within four days of an exposure and can reduce severity if it is administered up to 14 days after an exposure.

Public Services and Procurement Canada put out a tender last month to purchase 500,000 doses of the Imvamune smallpox vaccine on behalf of the Public Health Agency of Canada from 2023 to 2028.

After exposure to the virus there is around a 10- to 15-day incubation period followed by flu-like symptoms and swelling of the lymph nodes. Typically, infected individuals develop a fever or a headache followed by a rash with skin lesions.

Most people recover from monkeypox within weeks with severe instances being much more common in children.

Toronto Public Health investigating three suspected, one probable case

There are four suspected cases of monkeypox in Toronto, including one probable case.

Toronto Public Health identified three new suspected cases on Wednesday and confirmed one of the three men had travelled to Montreal and was a contact of the first suspected case TPH said it was investigating in the city over the weekend.

On Saturday, health officials said that the first suspected case involved a man in his 40s, but on Wednesday said that it is now considered a probable case.

Monkeypox is not considered to be a sexually transmitted disease but close contact during sexual activity is considered a common form of transmission. The virus is thought to be transmitted through close physical contact, bodily fluids, or droplets. It has also been known to spread through contaminated clothing or bedding.

Monkeypox has historically been mostly contained to endemic areas in Africa but a recent rise in community transmission in European countries, and now in North America, is leading to concern from health officials.

A number of confirmed or suspected cases have been reported this month in several European countries. The World Health Organization have confirmed 80 cases and acknowledge the recent spread remains a mystery.

With files from The Canadian Press