During a news conference Thursday, acting Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Rosann Seviour said the provincial Public Health division has been preparing since the first cases in Canada were announced. “As with any virus, we recognize it is only a matter if time before it enters our sphere,” she said. Seviour didn’t confirm where the probable case originated but noted most viruses enter Newfoundland and Labrador through travel. She said Newfoundland and Labrador is the sixth province in Canada to identify a case of monkeypox. Seviour said contact tracing is underway, and anyone identified as a close contact of a person who has monkeypox will be offered a vaccine. She said the post-exposure vaccine may decrease the severity of the disease or prevent it entirely. Seviour the supply of monkeypox vaccine — also used to treat smallpox — isn’t large, because it isn’t used often. “Now that supply is being ramped up,” she said. Seviour said while the virus has disproportionately impacted men who have sex with men, it can infect anyone through close contact. Some other provinces have opened vaccine clinics for groups with higher risk of infection, but Seviour said public health in Newfoundland and Labrador isn’t doing that yet. Methods to reduce the spread of monkeypox are similar to those repeated by public health officials during the COVID-19 pandemic: staying home when sick, washing hands frequently, and covering coughs and sneezes. However, Seviour said monkeypox is different, chiefly because once an individual is infected they have long-term immunity — which is not the case with COVID-19 — and it isn’t as transmissible. “We’re not dealing with the same situation at all,” she said. She said the virus spreads through close, physical contact, or through linens or bedsheets that have been in contact with lesions or sores caused by monkeypox. The virus that causes monkeypox can also spread through respiratory droplets, but infection through respiratory droplets is less likely, she said. The disease is caused by the monkeypox virus, which can enter the body through broken skin, the respiratory tract or the mucous membranes — eyes, nose or mouth. The province is following guidelines from the National Advisory Committee on Immunization and is offering the vaccine to asymptomatic people who are considered close contact exposures to the probable case. In a tweet Thursday morning, Premier Andrew Furey said Public Health has a plan and is putting it in action. Newfoundland and Labrador is reporting its first probable case of monkeypox. Following NACI guidelines, the Imvamune vaccine is being offered to close contact exposures to the probable case. Our public health team has a plan and is putting it in action. <a href=” pic.twitter.com/Jny9COn0wJ —@PremierofNL
‘Remain vigilant’
Last week, World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared the monkeypox outbreak a global emergency. There are more than 16,000 cases worldwide so far. Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, said Wednesday that while the global monkeypox outbreak is of “serious concern,” public health officials and governments have an opportunity to contain the spread. An electron micrograph of monkeypox particles, coloured teal, found within an infected cell, coloured brown. Newfoundland and Labrador now has its first suspected case of the disease. (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) Tam said so far, 99 per cent of infected people in Canada have been men, and most cases have been among men who have sex with men. “At this time, to lower the overall risk of getting infected and spreading the monkeypox virus, PHAC recommends practising safer sex,” Tam said. Tam said as of Wednesday, there were 745 cases in Canada — 346 cases in Quebec, 326 in Ontario, 58 in British Columbia, 12 in Alberta, two in Saskatchewan and one in the Yukon. Tam said that learning more about the disease, including how to recognize its symptoms, is critical in the fight against its spread. “We need to remain vigilant,” she said. Read more from CBC Newfoundland and Labrador
