Canada now has 477 confirmed cases of monkeypox in the country, with numbers that have risen in three provinces over the past week, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) announced Wednesday.
Since July 4, a total of 177 new cases have been confirmed in the country, representing a 59% increase in the number of cases over the past nine days.
Quebec continues to have the lion’s share of viral disease, with 284 cases as of July 13, up from 211 cases last week.
But Ontario saw the largest increase in cases in all provinces, from 77 cases on July 4 to now confirming 156 cases. British Columbia also saw an increase in cases for the first time in weeks, with 29 cases confirmed compared to the previous four. Alberta continues to have only eight confirmed cases, with no changes since the last update.
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Monkeypox, which causes flu-like symptoms and skin lesions, is transmitted to humans by animals caused by an orthopoxvirus, which is related to smallpox, according to PHAC.
People can become infected through direct contact with an infected person or from shared contaminated objects, such as sheets or towels.
“PHAC continues to collect and analyze epidemiological information reported by provinces and territories to help define the national scope of research and to determine whether there is an increased risk to human health in Canada,” he said. agency in a statement issued Wednesday.
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Around 60 countries where monkeypox is not endemic have reported outbreaks of viral disease, with 10,400 cases confirmed. The disease occurs mainly in West and Central Africa and only spreads occasionally to other places.
The World Health Organization announced Tuesday that its emergency committee for monkeypox will meet again next week and will analyze outbreak trends and the effectiveness of countermeasures taken against the virus.
The committee will also make recommendations on what countries and communities should do to deal with the outbreak, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesusi said on Tuesday during a briefing in Geneva.
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Canada’s director of public health, Dr. Theresa Tam, is in close contact with her provincial and territorial counterparts to ensure that monkeypox cases in Canada continue to be identified and managed quickly, PHAC said in a statement.
The National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, Man. is conducting diagnostic tests for the virus and is conducting complete genome sequencing, an improved fingerprint analysis, on Canadian monkeypox samples, the agency added.
“This sequencing will help our experts understand the transmission chains that occur in Canada,” says PHAC.
– with Reuters files.
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