Two new suspected cases of monkeypox and a possible case of the virus were reported in Toronto on Wednesday, bringing the total number of cases investigated in the city to four.
Toronto Public Health said all three of the newly reported cases were men – two in their 30s and one in their 20s – and they were “doing well.”
One of the three men was traveling to Montreal and is in contact with the first suspect. Toronto Public Health said it was investigating the city over the weekend.
The first case involves a man in his 40s who had contact with someone who had recently traveled to Montreal. The agency said on Wednesday that the first case was already considered a probable case.
By order of the Ontario Department of Health, cases can be classified as confirmed, probable, suspicious, inconsistent with the definition of the virus, or “epi-related.”
Last week, Quebec reported the first cases of the virus in Canada. The Public Health Agency of Canada reported 16 confirmed cases in the province on Wednesday.
In Montreal, Dr. Milen Druin, the city’s director of public health, provided updated data on the city on Wednesday, saying on Twitter that there were 13 confirmed and 14 suspected cases of monkeypox on the island of Montreal.
Health officials say none of the cases investigated so far have been seriously ill.
As a readiness step, PHAC provided Quebec with a small consignment of Imvamune vaccine from the National Strategic Emergency Reserve of Canada (NESS) to support their targeted response.
Similarly, once the storage and refrigeration chain operations are confirmed, other jurisdictions will start receiving limited pre-positioning supplies.
At this stage and in accordance with international expert assessments, including the World Health Organization (WHO), there is no need to use the vaccine for mass immunization.
In Canada, experts and health authorities continue to investigate the spread of monkeypox and will regularly assess the situation as it develops.
Monkeypox is a rare disease that comes from the same family of viruses that causes smallpox, which the World Health Organization declared eradicated worldwide in 1980.
In general, monkeypox does not spread easily between humans and is transmitted through prolonged close contact, including direct contact with respiratory droplets, body fluids, or wounds in an infected person.
Monkeypox is usually milder than smallpox and can cause fever, headache, muscle aches, exhaustion, swollen lymph nodes and lesions all over the body.
Health officials said the risk of monkeypox was low.
This Canadian Press report was first published on May 25, 2022.
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