The most recent data from Public Health Ontario reveals 21 cases of monkeypox in Ottawa.
Ontario health officials say there are now 288 confirmed cases of monkeypox in the province with 76 percent of all cases in Toronto.
Public Health Ontario says 132 new cases have been confirmed in the past seven days, including 58 since its last update on Tuesday alone, and there are nine probable cases, including two in women.
Last week, the provincial health agency confirmed its first case of the virus in a woman.
Most of the confirmed cases occur in men between 30 and 39 years of age, while there are two cases in men under 20 years of age.
“Although cases have been identified mostly among men who report sexual or intimate contact with other men, anyone can get monkeypox,” says Public Health Ontario. “Several factors that may increase the potential risk of exposure include close, sexual, and/or intimate contact with someone who has a monkeypox rash, pain, or scabs.”
In general, the virus does not spread easily and is transmitted by prolonged close contact through respiratory droplets, direct contact with skin lesions or body fluids, or through contaminated clothing or bedding.
Symptoms include fever, body aches, chills, fatigue, and throbbing in body parts.
Health officials say nine of the confirmed cases have been hospitalized and two have required admission to intensive care.
Although the disease has been relatively mild in many men, people can be contagious for weeks and the lesions can be extremely painful.
The Public Health Agency of Canada has recorded more than 600 cases of monkeypox, or MPXV, as it’s known in the scientific community, since the first report in early June.
Ontario’s chief medical officer of health recently said that monkeypox will likely be around for “many months” because of its long incubation period, but noted that Ontario is not seeing rapid growth of the virus.
Public Health Ontario reports 21 confirmed cases of monkeypox in Ottawa, while the Eastern Ontario Health Unit and the Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit each report one case of smallpox. The Renfrew County and District Health Unit has no confirmed cases of smallpox.
Ottawa Public Health (OPH) offers monkeypox vaccines.
The clinic locations are:
- Centretown Community Health Centre, 420 Cooper Street Ottawa
- Clinic dates and hours:
- Thursday, July 21, 2022 from 1 to 4 p.m
- Friday, July 22, 2022 from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.
- Monday, July 25, 2022 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m
- Wednesday July 27, 2022 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m
- Thursday, July 28, 2022 from 1 to 4 p.m
- Friday, July 29, 2022 from 1 to 3 p.m
- Clinic dates and hours:
- OPH Sexual Health Clinic, 179 Clarence Street
- Clinic dates and hours:
- Wednesday, July 20 from 1 to 4 p.m
- Friday, July 22 from 1 to 4 p.m
- Wednesday, July 27, 2022 from 1 to 4 p.m
- Friday, July 29, 2022 from 1 to 4 p.m
- Wednesday, August 3, 2022 from 1 to 4 p.m
- Friday, August 5, 2022 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m
- Clinic dates and hours:
More information available here.
Monkeypox disease comes from the same family of viruses that cause smallpox, which the World Health Organization declared eradicated worldwide in 1980. Smallpox vaccines have proven effective in fighting the smallpox virus.
With files from CityNews Ottawa.