Montreal public health has detected its first cases of “simian pox” in several months, while the risk of seeing a new global outbreak of this virus worries the World Health Organization (WHO).
• Read also: Mpox: WHO fears international spread of epidemic from DRC
During the month of December, three cases of mpox were confirmed by the Montreal Regional Public Health Department (DRSP). Mpox is the official WHO name for the terms now to be banned: monkey pox or simian pox.
These are the first cases detected in almost three months in the metropolis, since the last one dates back to August 2023, indicated Marianne Paquette, spokesperson for the DRSP.
Worrying outbreak in the DRC
These infections come as a major outbreak of another strain of the virus, also called “clade I”, which occurred in recent months in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) worries the WHO.
“It represents a risk for the rest of the world,” warned Rosamund Lewis, WHO technical manager for this disease, during a press briefing on December 15.
Especially since the strain behind the outbreak of cases in the DRC “is possibly more virulent,” maintains Michel Libman, an infectious diseases expert from McGill University.
The latter is concerned about the situation in the DRC and fears that the scenario of summer 2022 will repeat itself.
“That’s more or less how the outbreak started last time. It was in Nigeria, there was an importation of a few cases into several countries and it grew.”
In 2022, an outbreak of mpox in several countries which did not spare Montreal forced the authorities to launch a vaccination operation targeting in particular men from the LGBTQ community and sex workers, because it is transmitted through prolonged contact with the skin.
Globally, mpox transmission has generally accelerated in recent months. Last summer, around 100 cases were reported monthly to the WHO, while now, this number hovers around 1000, said the Dr Lewis.
Additional analyzes planned
As for the cases reported in December in Montreal, the DRSP plans “additional analyses” to determine whether they correspond to clade I.
Since only one laboratory in Quebec has the capacity to do this type of analysis, the results will be known in several weeks.
“The three recent cases confirmed in Montreal have symptoms similar to what has been observed since the start of the global mpox epidemic in May 2022. No serious presentation has been reported,” indicated Mme Paquette.
No cases of clade I have been reported in North America at the moment, specifies M.me Paquette.
Mpox and its symptoms
- First appearing in colonies of monkeys, mpox was first diagnosed in a human in 1970.
- Since then, the disease has mainly circulated in Africa. During a global outbreak in 2022, a first case is confirmed in Quebec which will record a total of 526 infections on its territory in the following months.
- Symptoms include fever, fatigue and body aches before appearing in painful rashes that start on the face before moving to the rest of the body.
- Infected people usually recover on their own within two to four weeks.
- Transmission generally occurs through direct skin contact with mpox lesions or with biological fluids from an infected person.