Monkeypox ‘almost eradicated’ in Montreal, once epicentre of virus outbreak in Canada

Montreal has almost eradicated the virus on its territory, according to doctors in the city — but they warn it's too early to declare victory.

Once the epicentre of Canada’s monkeypox outbreak, Montreal has almost eradicated the virus on its territory, according to doctors in the city — but they warn it’s too early to declare victory.

Cases can still be imported by tourists and other visitors, they say, adding that it’s still unclear how long the vaccine will remain effective.

Doctors and members of the city’s LGTBQ community are crediting the quick launch of a vaccination campaign and collaboration between public health officials and community organizations for the success in controlling the disease.

Dr. Geneviève Bergeron, responsible for health emergencies and infectious disease at Montreal’s public health department, said she’s “cautiously optimistic.”

“We’ve definitely seen a large decrease in the last few weeks,” she said in a recent interview. “At this point, the latest cases that we have began their illness in late September.”

Dr. Réjean Thomas, the president of a clinic in Montreal’s Village district that specializes in sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections, said that early in the outbreak, his clinic — l’Actuel — was seeing almost a dozen people a day who thought they had the disease.

Now, he said in a recent interview, “we’re seeing almost no more cases; it has completely diminished, almost eradicated.”

In total, his clinic treated 125 people with monkeypox — more than a quarter of all the cases in Montreal since the first case was detected in the city May 12.