monkeypox have been confirmed in Quebec, the Public Health Agency of Canada said late Friday, up from two the day before.The agency is still investigating about two dozen other suspected cases of the rare infectious disease in Quebec, which has not been detected before in Canada.
A case in the U.S. has also been linked to the province.Chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam said earlier Friday the federal public health agency does not know how widespread the disease has become in the country, but stressed that the risk to the public is low.
Monkeypox spread ‘unusual’ but risk to Canadians is ‘low,’ officials say The B.C. Centre for Disease Control said Friday that it is not investigating any suspected cases or possible contacts of monkeypox in the province after having ruled out two potential contacts.Monkeypox is a rare disease that comes from the same family of viruses as variola.
That virus causes smallpox, which the World Health Organization declared eradicated around the globe in 1980. It is also linked to the vaccinia virus used in the smallpox vaccine.The virus is spread through prolonged close contact, including direct contact with an infected person’s respiratory droplets, bodily fluids or sores, and is not very contagious in a typical social setting.Monkeypox is typically milder than smallpox and can cause fever, headache, muscle aches, exhaustion, swollen lymph nodes and lesions all over the body.There is global evidence that smallpox vaccines can offer protection against monkeypox, but Canada stopped routinely immunizing people against smallpox in 1972.Tam’s deputy, Dr.