Monkeypox: confirmed the first two cases in Canada and Australia diagnose possible contagion

Ang monkey pox continues to spread around the world. On Thursday night the first two were confirmed in Canada and on Friday it was reported that they were examining a possible contagion in Australia, which will be the first in Oceania. The disease, endemic to Central and West Africa, has been present in recent weeks as well as in several countries in Europe and the United States.

In an official statement, the Canadian Public Health Agency announced that two people tested positive for the virus in Quebec.

“The province of Quebec was notified of a positive monkeypox test result in two samples received by the National Microbiology Laboratory. These are the two first confirmed cases in Canada“, its hint.

Other suspicious cases are under review in the city of Montreal, according to state authorities. Mentioned by the regional directorate of public health of the same city 17 suspected cases at a press conference given in the morning.

Several dozen suspected or confirmed cases of monkeypox have been seen since the beginning of May in Europe and North America, raising fears that the disease is starting to spread.

Sweden, for example, also had its first confirmed infection on Thursday. On Wednesday, Spain, Portugal and the United States reported the presence of confirmed or suspected monkeypox in their territory. In the United Kingdom they already identified it on May 6th.

Rarely, the virus often manifests itself accompanied by fever, muscle aches, swollen lymph nodes and skin rashes on the hands and face, such as smallpox.

Monkeypox is a rare disease whose pathogen can be transmitted from an animal to a human and vice versa. When the virus occurs in humans, it is usually through contact with wild animals, rodents or primates, for example.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday that it was closely monitoring the fact that some cases in the UK appear to have been translated within the homosexual community.

First suspected case of monkeypox in Australia

The health authorities of Australia indicated this Friday that they were investigating first possible case of monkeypox.

The Australian Ministry of Health of the New South Wales region, the most populous in the country, reported in a statement that the patient was a man in his 40s who recently returned from Europe to the city of Sydney.

Both the traveler and the people living with him was quarantined home and treated by their family doctor and health authorities, according to the statement.

Some of its main symptoms are fever, headache, muscle aches, back pain, swelling of lymph nodes, chills, and fatigue, as well as skin rashes.

“The infection is usually mild and most people recover within a few weeks“, New South Wales Health chief Kerry Chant, reaffirmed in the statement. In addition, he noted that authorities in his region have issued alerts to doctors, hospitals and sexual health authorities about this virus.

For his part, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison told the press in Perth on Friday that, although the country’s authorities are “seriously” dealing with the discovery of a possible case of monkeypox, “nothing should be alarming at the moment ito “.

The World Health Organization (WHO) – which declared the eradication of monkeypox in the world in 1980, after the last case was reported in Somalia – indicated in a recent report that the conventional smallpox vaccine was highly effective against the disease. .

With information from the AFP and EFE

DB