Canada reported 77 cases of smallpox in the country, first discovered in the country on May 20 in the province of Quebec, where 71 of these cases were detected, five in Ontario and one in the province of Quebec. Alberta.
Howard Njoo, Canada’s deputy director of public health, said the discovery of 77 cases of monkeypox is worrisome, adding that the virus will spread to families and affect pregnant women or young children.
Smallpox is a virus that spreads from wild animals such as rats and primates to humans on a rare occasion. It is related to smallpox and belongs to the same family of viruses, according to the WHO.
Most human infections have occurred in Central and West Africa, and outbreaks are very rare.
Scientists discovered the disease in 1958 after two outbreaks of a “smallpox-like” disease in laboratory monkeys, hence the term smallpox. In 1970, a small child in a rural part of the Congo became the first known human infection.
According to the World Health Organization, it is estimated that thousands of smallpox infections occur each year in about a dozen African nations.
Most cases are reported in the Congo, which has about 6,000 cases a year, and in Nigeria, which has about 3,000 cases a year.