The agency says there are 156 confirmed cases of the disease in the province as of July 11, with all but one being men. The average age of confirmed cases, mostly reported in Toronto, is 37. Ontario’s Health Director recently said that monkeypox will likely be around for “many months” because of the long incubation period, but noted that Ontario is not seeing rapid growth of the virus. Public health officials say most cases are among men who report close contact with men, but say anyone can get monkeypox. The virus generally does not spread easily and is transmitted through prolonged close contact through respiratory droplets, direct contact with skin lesions or body fluids, or through contaminated clothing or bedding. Monkeypox disease comes from the same family of viruses that cause smallpox, which the World Health Organization declared to have been eradicated worldwide in 1980. Smallpox vaccines have been shown to be effective in fighting monkeypox. . Local public health units across Ontario have vaccination clinics for those the province deems to be at high risk of contracting monkeypox. Moore said the province is not looking to expand its vaccination strategy at this time because it “seems to be working.” This report by The Canadian Press was first published on July 14, 2022.
