OTTAWA – Federal officials say there are 168 confirmed cases of monkeypox in Canada.
The Public Health Agency of Canada says 141 cases have been reported in Quebec, 21 in Ontario, four in Alberta and two in British Columbia as of Friday.
The BC Centre for Disease Control says the second case is located in the Vancouver Coastal Health Region, same as the first case, but adds the two are not connected and are both related to travel.
Canada’s chief public health officer says all infections have been in men aged 20 to 69.
Dr. Theresa Tam told a news conference that many cases have been linked to sexual contact with other men, but the virus can spread to anyone who has had close physical contact with an infected person.
Tam says local health authorities have indicated that the rate of growth is slowing, and they’ll be tracking the disease’s trajectory over the next weeks.
Montreal officials expanded the city’s vaccination campaign Tuesday to all men who have sex with men, and Toronto started holding clinics to immunize high-risk individuals earlier this week.
Source: BCCDC
Meanwhile, Saskatchewan’s Ministry of Health says vaccines against monkeypox will be offered to close, high-risk contacts of an infected person if cases are found in the province.
There are no reported instances of monkeypox in Saskatchewan and the ministry says the risk of catching the virus is low.
But it says if there were cases, vaccines could be offered to contacts based on a public health assessment.
Saskatchewan’s chief medical health officer, Dr. Saqib Shahab, has designated monkeypox an emerging communicable disease.
He is working with Indigenous Services Canada, the Public Health Agency of Canada and the health authority to track possible cases.
He says if people develop lesions and have travelled to another province or country, they could have been exposed to the virus.
The disease is spread through prolonged face-to-face contact, touching bodily fluids of an infected person or from exposure to contaminated objects like bed sheets.
Shahab says the ministry is reaching out to young people to tell them to be aware of signs and symptoms.
CHEK News
The Canadian Press
