TORONTO – Public Health Ontario says it has recorded the first case of smallpox in the province in a female.
The agency says there are 156 confirmed cases of the disease in the province as of July 11, all but one were men.
An electron microscope image shows the monkeypox virus seen by a team from the Arbovirus Laboratory and the Genomics and Bioinformatics Units of the Carlos III Institute of Health (ISCIII) in Madrid on Thursday, May 26, 2022. Ontario Public Health reports its first female case of monkeypox.THE CANADIAN PRESS / ISCIII-via AP Electron Microscopy Unit
The average age of confirmed cases, which are mostly recorded in Toronto, is 37 years.
The Ontario medical director of health recently said that smallpox in monkeys is likely to exist for “many months” due to its long incubation period, but noted that Ontario is not seeing rapid growth of the virus.
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Public health officials say most cases are among men who report intimate contact with men, but say anyone can suffer from monkeypox.
In general, the virus does not spread easily and is transmitted by prolonged close contact through respiratory droplets, direct contact with skin lesions or body fluids, or through contaminated clothing or bedding.
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.
Local Ontario public health units have vaccination clinics for those the province believes are at high risk of contracting monkeypox.
Moore has said the province is not looking to expand its vaccination strategy at this time because “it looks like it’s working.”
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on July 14, 2022.