Quebec’s health ministry announced Thursday evening there are two confirmed cases of monkeypox in the province, while 20 other suspected cases are still under investigation.
The two positive cases in Quebec are the first confirmed cases in Canada, as other countries around the world have identified other confirmed and suspected cases of the rare disease in recent weeks.
“Epidemiological investigations are continuing to determine the links between the reported cases and to identify potentially at-risk contacts and inform them of protective measures,” Quebec’s Ministry of Health and Social Services said in a statement late Thursday.
Although the province is advising people to be vigilant, the disease is transmissible through “prolonged and close contact with an infectious person,” meaning it is less contagious than other viruses, like the flu or COVID-19.
Earlier in the day, Montreal Public Health said it’s asking health workers to be alert for monkeypox after seeing 17 suspected cases in the area over the last week.
Public health chief Dr. Mylene Drouin said at a morning news conference that the illness is not extremely contagious and is the milder of two strains.
The virus is transmitted by respiratory droplets and it’s not a sexually transmitted disease, she said, even though so far, all suspected cases in the Montreal area were among men who had sexual relations with other men.
Monkeypox is not a disease that health officials believe will enter a phase of general community transmission, she said — it’s not infectious enough for that.
“It’s not something you can acquire when do you do your grocery store [shopping] or on public transportation,” she said.
So far in Montreal, “mainly those [17] cases are men that have had sexual relationships with other men, aged between 30 to 55 years old,” Drouin said.
“And the clinical presentation is mainly ulceration of oral and genital parts that are painful, and with a phase before the eruption with fever, sweating and headaches.”
The public health chief added that “most of our cases are not severe cases.”
Those symptoms tally with known descriptions of monkeypox, a rare illness that can present as fever, headache and fatigue.
After a few days, patients usually develop a rash that often starts on the face before spreading to other parts of the body. Most patients recover in a matter of weeks, although it can be potentially fatal in some cases.
A distinguishing feature of monkeypox, compared to smallpox, is it causes the lymph nodes to swell, according to the CDC.
As of Thursday afternoon, Montreal didn’t yet have lab confirmation the 17 cases were, in fact, monkeypox, but after learning of other outbreaks in Europe and a case in the U.S. with travel linked to Montreal, public health “changed the course” of their investigation, Drouin said
NEWS CREDIT CTV NEWS – With files from The Canadian Press.