Canadian health officials to hold monkeypox update after WHO declares emergency
Global News
Monkeypox, which causes flu-like symptoms and skin lesions, is transmitted to humans from animals caused by an orthopoxvirus, which is related to smallpox, according to PHAC.
Canadian health officials will provide a monkeypox update on Wednesday after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak a global health emergency over the weekend.
The briefing comes as Canada’s confirmed monkeypox case count hit 681 on July 23. Globalnews.ca will be live-streaming the update, which is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. EDT.
Majority of the country’s cases have been found in Quebec and Ontario, which logged 331 and 288, respectively, as of July 23. British Columbia has 48 confirmed cases, Alberta with 12, and Saskatchewan with two.
Since July 1, Canada has seen monkeypox cases double, including the first in Saskatchewan and the first in a female in Ontario, Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) officials said on July 23. Infections are expected to continue to rise as the outbreak evolves, they added.
More than 18,000 monkeypox cases have been reported in 78 countries since its unusual emergence in the West this spring, WHO officials said on Wednesday. More than 70 per cent of cases have been found in Europe, and 25 per cent have been traced to the Americas. It declared the outbreak a global health emergency on July 23.
So far, five deaths have been linked to the outbreak and 10 per cent of cases have needed hospital admission. Roughly 98 per cent of cases have been among men who have sex with other men, WHO officials said, urging caution that the virus can spread to anyone as it’s not limited to one group.
Monkeypox, which causes flu-like symptoms and skin lesions, is transmitted to humans from animals caused by an orthopoxvirus, which is related to smallpox, according to PHAC.
Individuals can be infected through direct contact with an infected person or by shared contaminated objects, including bed linens or towels. The disease mainly occurs in west and central Africa and only occasionally spreads elsewhere.
