Canada must act quickly to control the monkeypox epidemic by scaling up tests, detecting cases quickly and resolving key unanswered questions about the origin and continuing spread of the virus before it takes root here and puts them at greater risk. our vulnerable, public health experts say. There were 112 confirmed cases in Canada to date – one in British Columbia, four in Alberta, nine in Ontario and 98 in Quebec – but officials said Friday that they expect that number to rise in the coming days and weeks as more results come. “Our primary goal is to contain the epidemic,” Canada’s chief public health officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, told a news conference on Friday. “This means cutting off transmission chains quickly to prevent monkey pox from being established in Canada and to protect public health and healthcare in Canada.” Tam said all the patients were men between the ages of 20 and 63, and the majority had sex with other men, but said the infection could spread to anyone exposed through close contact with an infected person or infected objects. “We need to try to contain the current outbreak of aphids,” said Jason Kindrachuk, an assistant professor of viral pathogenesis at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg and the Canadian Center for Outbreak Virus Studies. “Especially when we are still facing a pandemic. Viruses and infectious diseases do not stop only when a new one appears, but they become cumulative.”
Limited testing may obscure the actual spread
However, due to limited general community surveillance and the time it takes to diagnose and send specimens to the National Microbiological Laboratory in Winnipeg for confirmation, Canada is probably weeks behind in locating the true extent of monkey pox. The World Health Organization (WHO) said this week that there are more than 1,000 confirmed cases of smallpox in 29 non-endemic countries around the world, but some researchers estimate that the actual number is over 1,500 and is increasing rapidly. “The sudden and unexpected appearance of monkey pox in many non-endemic countries suggests that there may have been an undetectable transmission for some time. How long? “The risk of monkey pox settling in non-endemic countries is real.” CLOCKS WHO urges countries to help stop the spread of smallpox worldwide:
WHO urges nations to help curb monkey pox
The World Health Organization warns that monkey pox virus could spread to non-endemic countries if they do not control the current epidemic. “While health officials are particularly concerned about the threat posed by monkey pox to vulnerable groups such as children and pregnant women, countries like Canada can accelerate before the virus settles in our territory,” Tentros said. “This scenario can be prevented,” he said. “The WHO urges the affected countries to make every effort to identify all cases and contacts to control this epidemic and prevent further spread.” Dr. Zane Chagla, an infectious disease doctor at St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton, an associate professor of medicine at McMaster University, said Canada should try to find as many cases of smallpox as possible – especially when there are cases without known travel links. “This really suggests that we only see the tip of the iceberg in terms of testing,” he told CBC News. “You want to make sure that the tests are very extensive until we are able to connect more and more contacts and that we know where more and more cases are coming from, because at this point it does not seem to be so.” Asked by CBC News if the Public Health Service of Canada (PHAC) conducts randomized trials in the general community to look for cases other than those presented to symptomatic physicians, Tam said the agency is leaving it in the hands of doctors for now. CLOCKS Health officials are working to curb monkey pox outbreaks, raise awareness:
Quebec health workers work to curb monkey pox outbreak
Health officials in Quebec are working to curb the province’s monkey pox outbreak as the focus shifts to keeping people safe during summer gatherings. “They look out for rashes and of course their clinical history, but they try a lot of people who are actually negative about monkey pox but positive about other things,” he said. “This is a way to put the net in the forefront of public health and some of those people who are being screened actually have very little skin damage, but they are still being screened and we are finding other causes.” Tam said PHAC is also examining sewage and other surveillance systems to detect cases of monkey pox and antibody levels in different populations, but did not give specific details on when or if these initiatives would be launched to help monitor the spread. . “This is not like COVID, of course, it is very difficult,” Tam said. “Many people have very indistinguishable symptoms, but the rash is definitely a sign in this case.” Vaccines are another important tool in preventing the uncontrolled spread of monkey pox in the community and National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) now recommends a single dose Smallpox immunization vaccine for high risk reports. But while some provinces like Quebec have already begun to vaccinate close contacts using a so-called vaccination ring strategywith more than 1,600 doses were administered so far, Canada has been tightly in stock of the vaccine at national level. “The affected provinces are currently implementing vaccination strategies based on their local epidemiology and [PHAC] “We are currently working with manufacturers to ensure an adequate supply of vaccines forward,” Tam said. “Right now, we do not need a mass vaccination campaign to tackle this epidemic in Canada.”
The unknown origin underscores the dangers of diffusion
Genetic analysis has shown that the strain of monkey pox circulating in Canada is the same as it is spreading internationally, but the origin of the epidemic in this country is still unknown. “The spread will be slower than we have seen with COVID, but I think obviously if we see cases that are not epidemiologically related, there is a problem,” Chagla said. “This really suggests that many of these people could be lost, could continue to transmit – and even if they believe they have, there may be barriers to accessing care.” Tam added that there was no known “single incident” that led to the outbreak of the outbreak in Quebec, but there may have been multiple outbreaks that caused the outbreak. Canada has not yet seen deaths or severe cases of smallpox in monkeys, but Kindrachuk said that did not “rule out the risk” that the virus would continue to travel to various vulnerable areas – such as homeless shelters, prisons and long-term care facilities. “When we have infections that are constantly accumulating, we know we have populations and demographics within populations that have an increased risk of serious disease,” he said. “It all depends on the restriction.” CLOCKS 2 strains of monkey pox circulating worldwide, say health officials:
Two different strains of monkey pox are circulating, say US health officials
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has identified two different strains of monkey pox in this country and say the virus can go unnoticed. Chagla said there could likely be “under-recognized diffusion” on other social networks and high-risk close contact arrangements “where we could predict a very real risk of continued spread”. “We saw it with COVID, where it got into some of those high-risk places and took off like wildfire – and so I think that’s the main concern here,” he said. “The take-off of monkey pox in a homeless shelter or the take-off of monkey pox in a penitentiary can wreak havoc and put people already on the margins under even more pressure in this regard.” Another important diffusion risk expert they monitor is within the animal population, because unlike smallpox, which was eradicated through vaccination mainly because it was restricted to host humans, monkeypox can be transmitted back into animal tanks. “We do not fully understand what the tank host is or what other random hosts look like,” Kindrachuk said, adding that this key unanswered question plays an important role in the long-term fight against aphids and the possibility of them becoming endemic here. . “We know for sure that it can move on other animals. We saw that in 2003 in the Midwestern United States, when it moved to prairie dogs. We know it has been found on rodents and other animals in Central West Africa,” he said. . “This net should probably be thrown over the people now.” A micro-photograph of a smear of mucous nasal secretion from a prairie dog infected with the smallpox virus. Experts are monitoring a significant risk of diffusion into the animal population. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) Dr Scott Weese, head of infection control at the Ontario Veterinary College at the University of Guelph, said the leak of animals created by the new tank was a “major concern” that could lead to prolonged spread and even mutation of the virus. “If we check on people in Canada, he’s gone. He may come back, but he’s not staying,” he said. “If we put this in the wild, then we will have a situation where there is a constant danger – as there is in endemic areas of Africa.”
