Ontario reports 288 confirmed cases of monkeypox
Posted Jul 23, 2022 11:00:00 AM.
Health officials in Ontario say there are now 288 confirmed cases of monkeypox in the province with 76 per cent of all cases in Toronto.
Public Health Ontario says 132 new cases were confirmed in the past seven days – including 58 alone since its last update on Tuesday – and there are nine probable cases, including two in women.
Last week, the provincial health agency confirmed its first case of the virus in a woman.
The majority of confirmed cases are in men between the ages of 30 and 39 while there are two cases in males under the age of 20.
“Although cases have mostly been identified among males who report sexual or intimate contact with other males, anyone can get monkeypox,” says Public Health Ontario. “Various factors that may increase the potential risk for exposure include close, sexual, and/or other intimate contact with someone who has a monkeypox rash, sore, or scabs.”
The virus generally doesn’t spread easily and is transmitted through prolonged close contact via respiratory droplets, direct contact with skin lesions or bodily fluids, or through contaminated clothes or bedding.
Symptoms include fever, body aches, chills, fatigue and the bumps on parts of the body.
Health officials says nine of the confirmed cases have been hospitalized with two requiring admission to critical care.
While the illness has been relatively mild in many men, people can be contagious for weeks, and the lesions can be extremely painful.
The Public Health Agency of Canada has recorded more than 600 cases of monkeypox, or MPXV as it is known in the scientific community, since the first report in early June.
Ontario’s chief medical officer of health recently said monkeypox will likely be around for “many months” because of its lengthy incubation period but he noted that Ontario isn’t seeing rapid growth of the virus.
Public Health Ontario is reporting 21 confirmed cases of monkeypox in Ottawa, while the Eastern Ontario Health Unit and the Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit are each reporting one case of monkeypox. The Renfrew County and District Health Unit has no confirmed cases of monkeypox.
Ottawa Public Health (OPH) is offering vaccines for monkeypox.
Clinic locations are:
- Centretown Community Health Centre, 420 Cooper Street Ottawa
- Dates and clinic hours:
- Thursday, July 21 2022 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
- Friday, July 22 2022 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
- Monday, July 25, 2022 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- Wednesday, July 27, 2022 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
- Thursday, July 28, 2022 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
- Friday, July 29, 2022 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
- Dates and clinic hours:
- OPH Sexual Health Clinic, 179 Clarence Street
- Dates and clinic hours:
- Wednesday, July 20 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
- Friday, July 22 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
- Wednesday, July 27, 2022 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
- Friday, July 29, 2022 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
- Wednesday, August 3, 2022 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
- Friday, August 5, 2022 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- Dates and clinic hours:
More information is available here.
The monkeypox disease comes from the same family of viruses that cause smallpox, which the World Health Organization declared eradicated around the globe in 1980. Smallpox vaccines have proven effective in combating the monkeypox virus.
With files from CityNews Ottawa.
