The risk of monkeypox is low, but almost everyone in Canada is susceptible because routine smallpox vaccination ended decades ago, top public health officials said Friday.
Smallpox is a rare disease that comes from the same virus family as smallpox. This virus causes smallpox, which the World Health Organization declared eradicated worldwide in 1980. It is also related to the vaccinia virus used in the smallpox vaccine.
The Quebec Department of Health said on Twitter on Friday afternoon that five cases had been confirmed in the province, compared to two on Thursday.
The Public Health Agency of Canada, which is investigating about two dozen possible cases of monkeypox in addition to confirmed cases in Quebec, says it is spread through prolonged close contact. This includes direct contact with an infected person’s respiratory droplets, body fluids, or sores, and is not highly contagious in a typical social setting.
The BC Center for Disease Control said Friday it is not investigating any suspicious cases or possible smallpox contacts of the monkey in the province after ruling out two possible contacts.
Canada’s director of public health, Dr. Theresa Tam, said the federal public health agency does not know how widespread the disease is in the country.
Smallpox is usually milder than smallpox and can cause fever, headache, muscle aches, exhaustion, swollen lymph nodes and injuries all over the body.
There is widespread evidence that smallpox vaccines can provide protection against smallpox.
But Canada routinely stopped immunizing people from smallpox in 1972.
Tam MP Dr. Howard Njoo said this means everyone is susceptible to monkeypox.
“I would say that, in general, the entire population is susceptible to monkeypox,” Njoo said Friday.
Canada maintains a small stockpile of smallpox vaccine in the event of a biological incident, such as exposure to the laboratory.
A few cases in the UK prompted this country to start offering the vaccine to healthcare workers and close contacts of confirmed cases.
Tam said Canada is considering a similar strategy.
“Quebec had some interest in contacts, so it’s being discussed right now, but of course we need to know some of the epidemiology as soon as possible,” Tam said.
He did not say how many doses of the smallpox vaccine is available in Canada, citing safety reasons.
Public Services and Procurement Canada tendered last month to purchase 500,000 doses of the Imvamune smallpox vaccine on behalf of the Public Health Agency of Canada from 2023 to 2028.
“Although smallpox is currently considered to be eradicated, the PHAC is acquiring a vaccine reserve to immunize Canadians against smallpox in the event of a risk where the smallpox is intentionally or unintentionally released,” she said. tender.
Health Canada has also approved this vaccine, from the Danish biotechnology company Bavarian Nordic, for the prevention of monkeypox.
The company announced on Thursday that it had reached an agreement with an unnamed European country to supply its vaccine in response to smallpox cases.
There is still a sense of mystery surrounding the sudden appearance of the virus in Canada, the US, Australia and various parts of Europe.
“Not many of these individuals are connected to travel to Africa where the disease is usually seen, so this is unusual. It is unusual for the world to see so many cases reported in different countries outside Africa,” Tam said.
Canadian healthcare systems are launching a wide-ranging network looking for more cases, he said, because not enough is known about why the virus suddenly appears around the world.
“There have probably been some hidden transmission chains that could have occurred over a good number of weeks, given the kind of global situation we’re seeing right now,” he said.
Njoo said global public health authorities need to be open to the idea that monkeypox is evolving and that transmission may have changed as well.
Samples of suspicious cases are currently being sent to the Winnipeg National Microbiology Laboratory, but the PHAC is working with the provinces to establish more local diagnoses.
Laura Osman, The Canadian Press
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Smallpox of the monkey