(Belga) Ten new cases of monkey pox have been identified in Quebec, bringing the total number to 15, Canadian health authorities announced on Tuesday, saying they expect additional cases in other provinces of the country.
Monkeypox, detected in recent weeks in Europe and North America, is a rare disease originating in Africa which is generally cured spontaneously. “We expect other cases to be confirmed over the next few days,” said Jean-Yves Duclos, the Minister of Health, who indicated that samples were being analyzed. “We have put in place several measures to detect cases and contain the spread of monkeypox in Canada,” he added, adding that “the situation was different from what it was with the emergence of the Covid”. The federal government has made “available the Imvamune vaccine and drugs stored in the national emergency strategic reserve”. The first doses of the vaccine were delivered to the province of Quebec on Tuesday. While there is no vaccine for monkeypox, which is usually self-curing, a smallpox vaccine can be used to protect contact cases. Canada had confirmed its first two cases last week in the French-speaking province. Monkeypox is an infectious disease that is caused by a virus transmitted to humans from infected animals, most commonly rodents. But the virus was first discovered in 1958 in a group of macaques that were being studied for research purposes, hence its name, according to Inserm, a major French medical research institute. (Belga)
