Monkeypox is a viral disease, also called monkeypox virus disease or monkeypox in English, which usually manifests as fever, headache or back pain, muscle aches, swollen lymph nodes, and skin rashes similar to those caused by chickenpox.
Endemic in West Africa, this disease is rather rare in Europe and North America. It is usually transmitted through contact with infected animals, but it can also be spread by humans. No treatment exists, but it usually heals on its own.
However, outbreaks have recently been recorded in several European countries, including the United Kingdom, Spain and Portugal. In all, more than 40 suspected or confirmed cases have been reported so far. And the homosexual and bisexual communities would be particularly affected.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the first case of monkeypox detected outside Africa was confirmed by British authorities on May 6. The infected person was returning from a trip to Nigeria.
Since then, the United Kingdom has identified eight other cases, all contaminated inside the country, which makes authorities fear a community transmission of the virus.
The first case was also detected in the United States on Wednesday by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, which said the man in question had recently traveled to Canada. The specialized health website STAT News later clarified that he had traveled to Quebec.
An announcement from Montreal Public Health on Thursday or Friday
In Montreal, all patients who potentially contracted the disease were seen in clinics where sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections (STBBIs) are diagnosed: four at the L’Actuel clinic, five at L’Agora and four at La Licorne. .
The results of their tests were sent to laboratories for analysis. An announcement should be made by the end of the week.
We’ve had a few cases that are under investigation, because it’s not easy to diagnose.
explains Dr. Réjean Thomas, of the L’Actuel clinic.
« It may look like syphilis, it may look like herpes. It gives ulcers with large lymph nodes and there, you have to take a sample and it’s a long time – with COVID everything is long – before you get the results. »
Dr. Robert Pilarski, of the La Licorne clinic, says his infected patients do not respond to antibiotics. Two of them would have had contact with a patient from the United States who is currently hospitalized
he said.
The infection, at present, we believe is transmitted almost exclusively through direct contact with people
explains Dr. Pilarski, either by lesions
or by contaminated clothing
.
Le incubation time
he says, isat 3weeks”,”text”:”from 2to 3weeks”}}”>2 to 3 weekset symptoms can [tous] appear at the same time
.
Reached by CBC, the English network of Radio-Canada, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) declared on Wednesday that no case of monkeypox had yet been reported to it.
That being said, theASPC said to have alerted provincial and territorial public health authorities, as well as partner laboratories across Canada, to be vigilant and investigate any potential cases
. She also claims to collaborate closely
on this issue with its international partners, including theOMS.
Usually mild illness
In 2003, an epidemic of monkeypox had hit the United States. Some 70 cases had been identified, but none of them had led to a death.
An epidemic of monkeypox, caused by contact between humans and infected prairie dogs, hit the United States in 2003.
Photo : Getty Images / Mike Roemer
Monkeypox is usually mild. There are two main strains: the Congo strain, which is more serious – up to 10% mortality – and the West African strain, whose case fatality rate is around 1%.
According to the details provided by theOMSWednesday, all confirmed cases in the UK this year have been infected with the West African strain.
Monkeypox was first identified in the 1950s when two outbreaks occurred in colonies of monkeys used for research purposes. The first human case was reported in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The disease is often likened to a milder form of smallpox, also called smallpox
a disease declared eradicated in 1980, in particular thanks to an international vaccination campaign led by theOMS.
The smallpox vaccine is also effective against monkeypox, but routine vaccination programs ended in Canada in the early 1970s, leaving Canadians under 50 vulnerable to infection.