Monkeypox spread may be slowing in Canada, health official says

13/8/2022 6:55

        There are early signs that the spread of monkeypox infections are starting to slow down in Canada, but it was "too soon to tell" whether cases had plateaued, chief public health officer Theresa Tam said on Friday.
        
        "The cases are not increasing at the speed at which they were increasing at the beginning of the outbreak and so we will just keep monitoring that trend in the next number of weeks," Tam told reporters at a briefing.
        
        Monkeypox spreads via close contact and tends to cause flu-like symptoms and pus-filled skin lesions; people generally recover from it within two to four weeks, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
        
        More than 80 countries where monkeypox is not endemic have reported outbreaks of the viral disease. Last month, the WHO declared monkeypox a "public health emergency of international concern," seeking to trigger a coordinated international response and unlock funding to collaborate on vaccines and
        treatments.
        
        Canada has said it is in a good position to handle the outbreak thanks to stored vaccines for smallpox, which is closely related monkeypox.