TORONTO – HEALTH – Toronto Public Health continues to oversee Monkeypox activity in Toronto. As of June 3, 2022 at 3:00 p.m., there have been: 8 positive cases, 10 negative cases, and 6 cases being investigated for this virus.
There are 3 new cases confirmed in the lab since the last update.
The World Health Organization says that since May 13, 2022, and until June 2, 2022, 780 cases of smallpox have been reported or identified by the WHO in 27 member states of four regions of the world. WHO are not endemic to the monkeypox virus. Epidemiological investigations are ongoing. Most of the cases reported so far have been presented through sexual health services or other health services in primary or secondary care centers and have involved mainly, but not exclusively, men who have sex with men (MSM).
Although the West African virus clade has been identified so far from case samples, most confirmed cases with a travel history reported trips to European and North American countries, rather than from West or Central Africa where the monkeypox virus is endemic. Confirmation of monkeypox in people who have not traveled to an endemic area is atypical, and even a case of monkeypox in a non-endemic country is considered an outbreak. While most cases are not associated with travel from endemic areas, Member States are also reporting a low number of cases in Nigerian travelers, as noted earlier.
The sudden and unexpected appearance of monkeypox simultaneously in several non-endemic countries suggests that there may have been undetected transmission for an unknown length of time followed by recent amplifier events.
The WHO assesses global risk as moderate, noting that this is the first time that many cases and groups of smallpox have been reported simultaneously in non-endemic and endemic countries in very different WHO geographical areas.
WHO continues to receive updates on the situation in endemic countries.
Description of the outbreak
As of June 2, 2022, 780 confirmed laboratory cases have been reported to the WHO in accordance with the International Health Regulations (IHR) or identified by the WHO from official public sources in 27 non-endemic countries. of four WHO Regions. This represents an increase of 523 confirmed laboratory cases (+ 203%) since the News of the disease outbreak on May 29, when a total of 257 cases were reported. As of June 2, 2022, there have been no deaths associated with the current outbreak of smallpox in non-endemic countries, however, cases and deaths from endemic countries continue to be reported.
While research is ongoing, preliminary data from polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays indicate that monkeypox virus strains detected in Europe and other non-endemic areas belong to the West African clade.
Figure 1 and Table 1 show the geographical distribution of smallpox cases reported or identified by the WHO between May 13 and June 2, 2022 in non-endemic countries. Most cases (n = 688; 88%) were reported in the WHO European Region (20 countries). Confirmed cases have also been reported in the Americas Region (n = 80; 10%), the Eastern Mediterranean Region (n = 9; 1%), and the Western Pacific Region (n = 3; <1%). ).
The number of cases fluctuates as more information becomes available daily and the WHO verifies the data in accordance with the provisions of the IHR.