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The Imvamune vaccine will be available to people in Quebec who are in close contact with confirmed or suspected cases of smallpox.
The situation of monkeypox in Quebec is worrying, said the interim director of public health, Dr. Luc Boileau. Photo by Pierre Obendrauf / Montreal Gazette
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There are 25 confirmed cases of monkeypox in Quebec, while up to 30 more are under investigation, public health officials said Thursday.
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Fourteen of the cases are in the Montreal area, said Geneviève Bergeron, medical officer for health emergencies and infectious diseases at the city’s public health department. Analyzes are being conducted to see if the cases are linked, he said Thursday.
The announcement comes just a week after Quebec confirmed its first two cases of monkeypox, a virus that is commonly endemic to parts of West Africa. Most cases in Quebec were found in men who had sex with other men, although one of the patients is a child who has recently been in contact with friends at school, Dr. Luc Boileau, interim director of health. Quebec public.
“It’s a serious outbreak,” Boileau told a news conference in Montreal on Thursday. “We think it is a serious situation, but it is not the same as the situation of COVID. A very large number of cases are not expected to happen quickly. That is why we think it can be eradicated. I mean, hopefully it can be. Therefore, we must be very careful with this problem and insist that infected people be very careful with their contacts. “
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Smallpox is spread by close and prolonged contact with an infected person. It can also be transmitted through drops, said University of Montreal microbiologist and professor Caroline Quach. Symptoms include fever; a rash with blisters on the face, hands, feet, eyes, mouth, or genitals; swollen lymph nodes; headaches and muscle aches.
The incubation period for monkeypox usually lasts five to seven days, sometimes extending to 21 days, Boileau said. In most cases, the disease goes away on its own in two to four weeks. Complications can occur “in very rare cases,” Boileau said.
This is only the second known outbreak of the disease in North America in the last two decades. The first, which occurred in 2003, affected 71 people in several US states. It was traced to rats imported from Ghana and housed near prairie dogs in Illinois. Meadow dogs were sold as pets and later developed signs of infection.
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“This is a bit of a concern,” Donald Vinh, an infectious disease specialist and medical microbiologist at McGill University Health Center, said in an interview. “In the last week we have had a zero increase to 25 confirmed cases. For a disease we have never seen before in Canada, it seems to be a relatively large increase. What we are seeing now is a domino effect. We are not at the beginning “But we are somewhere along the way. The question is, how many more patients are there?”
Because smallpox is closely related to the virus that causes smallpox, the administration of a smallpox vaccine can prevent people from contracting the disease or making it less severe.
Quebec has received its first doses of the federal government’s Imvamune smallpox vaccine, and vaccination could begin as early as Friday, Boileau said Thursday. “Several hundred” doses of the vaccine were delivered on Tuesday, although no widespread vaccination campaign is being planned, Boileau said.
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High-risk contacts of a confirmed or probable case of smallpox can be vaccinated with a single dose of Imvamune within four days of exposure, according to the recommendations of the Quebec Immunization Committee. A second dose can only be given if the risk of exposure is still present 28 days later.
Quebec doctors have been reporting monkeypox cases since May 19, when the province began an epidemiological investigation.
At least 12 countries, including Australia, Belgium, Portugal and the United Kingdom, have reported cases of smallpox in the last two weeks. As of Saturday, the World Health Organization counted 92 confirmed laboratory cases in various regions of the world. Cases have been identified “primarily but not exclusively” among men who have sex, the WHO said.
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In Quebec, several possible links are being investigated, including patient trips to the United States, Belgium and Mexico, Bergeron said.
Health officials who told reporters on Thursday warned that he was not stigmatizing the gay community.
“Stigmatization is counterproductive,” Bergeron said. “Our enemy is the virus. It’s not the people who are affected.”
“It’s pretty unusual that we’re seeing the onset of this disease in several countries at once,” Bergeron said. “We are very early in the process of understanding these connections, but we are looking at them and gathering information” to understand how the disease got here, he said.
Authorities provided little details about the infected child other than saying they were going to school in Greater Montreal. The boy is isolated, Boileau said.
“We’re in an investigation and we’re mobilizing resources to make sure there are actions that will be taken,” Boileau said. “Things are being done very carefully and rigorously right now.”
ftomesco@postmedia.com
The Canadian press contributed to this report.
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Montreal residents “shouldn’t panic” over the monkey’s smallpox, Drouin says
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Canada can deliver vaccines to Quebec to fight monkeypox
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