Ontario is not experiencing rapid growth in monkeypox cases and its vaccination strategy appears to be working, says the province’s chief physician.
Health medical director Dr. Kieran Moore said smallpox in monkeys is likely to exist for “many, many months” due to its long incubation period of up to 21 days, but Ontario is not seeing exponential growth. of the virus.
“Currently the number (of cases) is not increasing rapidly, but it is increasing,” Moore said in a recent interview. “We believe it’s stabilizing in Ontario, in terms of non-rapid growth.”
Moore said 133 cases had been identified in Ontario on July 6, the vast majority were in Toronto and most others connected to the city. Public Health Ontario had reported 33 cases two weeks earlier.
Read more: Ontario’s confirmed cases of Monkeypox reach 101
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All cases reported since July 6 have been in men between the ages of 20 and 65.
Monkeypox is generally not easily transmitted between people and is transmitted by prolonged close contact through respiratory droplets, direct contact with skin lesions or body fluids, or by contaminated clothing or bedding. Symptoms may include rash, oral and genital lesions, swollen lymph nodes, headache, fever, chills, myalgia, and fatigue.
Public health says most cases are among men who report intimate contact with men, but says anyone can suffer from monkeypox.
Smallpox smallpox disease comes from the same family of smallpox-causing viruses, which the World Health Organization declared eradicated worldwide in 1980. Smallpox vaccines have been shown to be effective in combating smallpox. the smallpox virus.
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Moore said the province has been working “diligently” to vaccinate those who have contracted the virus, as well as close contacts or anyone at risk of contact.
“More than 8,000 people have received the smallpox vaccine, which we believe has good protection against smallpox,” he said.
“We have also been able to offer treatments, so five Onttarians have been treated with a drug called TPoxx, (which is for those) who have had serious complications related to monkeypox.”
The province is not looking to expand its vaccination strategy at this time, Moore said, adding that “it looks like it’s working.”
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“Typically, this dose of vaccine has two doses 28 days apart,” Moore said. “We are reviewing whether we should go back to these 8,000 individuals and provide a second dose.”
Dr. Allison McGreer, an infectious disease specialist at Toronto’s Mount Sinai Hospital, said the increase in cases in the province “is not causing alarm,” but the situation is still “relatively fragile.”
Read more: The York region confirms its first cases of smallpox in the monkey
“We don’t know what it will take to control the outbreak,” McGreer said. “We are not entirely sure that the virus has not changed enough to allow for more sustained transmission to populations.”
McGreer said there is no immediate risk to the majority of the monkeypox population.
“This is really an intervention for populations where we have a defined risk, and they are watching closely to identify if there has been any spread outside of these high-risk populations,” McGreer said.
The province’s current vaccination strategy is “the best that can be done right now with the limited supplies we have,” he said.
“The fine line that all jurisdictions are trying to follow is to make sure people who are at significant risk of monkeypox have access to the vaccine,” McGreer said.
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“And that the rest of us who are not, at this time, at any significant risk of monkeypox are not running out of the limited supplies we have and are not potentially exposed to a small risk that we do not know yet.”
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