The number of monkeypox cases worldwide has risen nearly 50% in the past week and the outbreak is likely to progress, Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, Dr.D Theresa Tam.
Canada has 745 confirmed cases, including 46% (346 cases) in Quebec, according to data published by the Public Health Agency of Canada.
“The plateau may not be reached for a long time,” warned the DD Tam at a press conference Wednesday in Ottawa. She said she was unable to estimate how many cases are missing from current data.
While waiting for new figures, the Government of Canada says it is following the temporary recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO). His boss, the D.r Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, issued the Organization’s highest level of alert over the spike in cases four days earlier.
For his part, the Deputy Chief Public Health Officer of Canada, Dr.r Howard Njoo, indicated that other countries have “still efforts to make”, but that Canada was “in a good position” to contain the outbreak.
In an attempt to curb the rise in cases, health authorities will continue to rely on vaccination and prevention campaigns among men who have had homosexual relations.
According to the Public Health Agency of Canada, men who have had sex with men account for 99% of infections. This figure motivates the Agency to target this “at risk” population, asking among other things to reduce the number of sexual partners and practice safer sexual activities.
“We need to educate the general population, but we need to be aware that men who have sex with men are at high risk,” warned Dr.r Njoo.
The Agency has indicated that it is necessary to avoid stigmatizing the population targeted by its awareness-raising efforts.
So far, some 70,000 Imvamune smallpox vaccines have been distributed across the country’s provinces. However, despite efforts to persuade communities at risk, only 27,000 doses have been administered so far. “For the past few days, there has been a reduction in the number of vaccinations”, indicates the DD Tam.
His colleague, Dr.r Njoo, points out that efforts still need to be made in this direction to “identify the obstacles to vaccination” which are slowing down the current campaign and to speed up the process of administering doses.