Montreal remains the central point in the country for cases of monkeypox, while the Quebec metropolis now has 13 confirmed cases and 14 “suspected” cases of the virus.
Montreal’s regional director of public health, Mylène Drouin, reported on this new report on Wednesday on Twitter. For the moment, no case investigated has been seriously ill, says Public Health.
On Tuesday, the Ministry of Health reported 15 confirmed cases of infections across the province.
In Toronto, Public Health said Wednesday that there are two new suspected cases of monkeypox in the city, as well as a probable case of the virus that is under investigation. This brings the total number of cases in the city under investigation to four.
The agency in Toronto said the three new cases are men – two in their 30s and one in their 20s – and are in good condition.
According to her, one of the three men had traveled to Montreal and was a contact of the first suspected case. Toronto Public Health had previously indicated it was investigating the city over the weekend.
This first case involved a man in his 40s who had been in contact with someone who had recently traveled to Montreal. The agency said on Wednesday that this first case was now considered a probable case.
Last week, Quebec reported the first cases of the virus in Canada.
Monkeypox is a rare disease that comes from the same family of viruses that causes smallpox, which the World Health Organization declared eradicated worldwide in 1980.
In general, monkeypox does not spread easily between people and is transmitted through prolonged close contact, including direct contact with respiratory droplets, bodily fluids, or wounds of an infected person.
Monkeypox is generally milder than smallpox and can cause fever, headache, muscle aches, exhaustion, swollen lymph nodes and lesions all over the body.
Health officials say the risk posed by monkeypox is low.
“Other samples from jurisdictions in Canada are on their way to the National Microbiology Laboratory (NML) in Winnipeg for testing and we expect more cases to be confirmed in the coming days,” it said. Tuesday evening in a written statement the Federal Minister of Health, Jean-Yves Duclos.
Quebec was to receive “a small amount of doses” of the Imvamune vaccine on Tuesday. Mr. Duclos indicates that the response plan includes “the availability of the Imvamune vaccine and the drugs stored in our National Emergency Strategic Reserve in administrations throughout the country”.