Achi news desk-
Ontario health officials are urging public health units to test for mpox, the viral disease formerly known as monkeypox, amid a spike in confirmed cases in the province.
According to a report released Tuesday, Ontario has seen 26 confirmed cases of mpox since mid-January.
In all of 2023 only 33 cases were recorded.
About 77 percent of cases were reported by Toronto Public Health, while the remaining infections were reported in Ottawa, Peel and Halton.
Mpox is a viral illness that causes a rash or sores. Other symptoms include fever, chills, fatigue, swollen lymph nodes, muscle aches, headache and sore throat.
Symptoms can appear between five and 21 days after exposure. It is usually spread through direct close contact with an infected person, including intimate or sexual contact. It usually does not result in deaths.
In 2022 the World Health Organization declared a public health emergency after hundreds of cases emerged globally.
In Ontario more than 600 infections have been reported, mostly among men.
Of the 2024 cases, all but one have been identified among men, and almost all are unvaccinated.
In a news release issued earlier this week, Toronto public health officials noted that the virus has previously affected gay and bisexual men, as well as men who have sex with other men. “
There is a two-dose vaccine that helps prevent the spread of mpox and helps reduce symptoms. Doses of the vaccine, known as Imvamune, should be taken over a period of 28 days.
The vaccine should be available in clinics that provide sexual health care.
Ontario Public Health is asking local health units to encourage the two-dose vaccination for those who are eligible.
“It is important to note that cases have not gone,” Infectious Disease Specialist Isaac Bogoch told CP24.
“There are more cases now than there were at this time last year, it’s still circulating and people who are eligible for the vaccine but haven’t received it yet should go out and get it.”
In Ontario, eligible individuals are limited to “two-spirit, non-binary, transgender, biracial, intersex, or gender-queer individuals who self-identify or have sexual partners who self-identify as belonging to the gay, bisexual, pansexual. and other men who have sex with the male community.”
Those individuals within these communities also need to have had confirmation of a sexually transmitted infection within the last year, have or plan to have two or more sexual partners, have attended settings for sexual contact, or who has had anonymous sex.
Ontario Public Health notes that data represents confirmed cases and is subject to “significant degrees of underreporting due to a variety of factors.”
These factors include disease awareness, changes in laboratory tests and medical care behaviour.
