Toronto Public Health is advising people to get vaccinated against mpox amidst an increase in confirmed cases of the virus in the city this year. 21 cases of mpox have been reported in Toronto this year.

Downtown Toronto

Toronto Public Health is actively encouraging residents to get vaccinated against mpox, following a surge in the number of confirmed cases within the city. The health authority's advisory comes in response to the detection of 21 mpox cases so far this year. The spike in cases has raised concerns among health officials, prompting the push for vaccination as a preventive measure.



Toronto Public Health urges citizens to take the mpox vaccine

Two years after a global impacts outbreak, Toronto is again seeing a spike in cases. While cases certainly dwindled, they never went away and there's been low-level transmission both locally acquired cases and then imported cases to Toronto since then. Last year, the city had 27 reported cases. But in the first two and a half months of 2024, Toronto Public Health is already reporting 21 cases of impacts. We're still seeing the cases in gay and bisexual men in the City of Toronto. 19 of the individuals acquired their infection locally in Toronto and two acquired it through travel. It's not exclusively in that population, but it's mostly in that community. And again, no stigma, no value judgments. It's just important that people are aware of this. Toronto's Public Health says while MPOC spreads mostly through sexual or intimate contact with the person who has the virus, anyone can get it. It can spread through contact with materials contaminated with the virus such as bedding or even through bites and scratches from infected animals. Symptoms typically start five days to three weeks after exposure. They include fever, headache, muscle aches, exhaustion, swollen lymph nodes and a rash. Shaheen says while the current numbers are concerning, it's not yet a public health emergency. It's not anywhere near what we were seeing in 2022 where we saw over 500 cases. But, you know, we would like to remind people who are eligible about the importance of getting vaccinated. Of the individuals, the 21 confirmed cases this year so far, only three have had one dose of vaccine and the rest are either completely unimmunized or have not been able to give us their immune records. The Public Health Agency is encouraging those at risk to ask about vaccine availability where they access sexual health care. The vaccine is free and does not require an OHIP card. Anam Khan, CBC News, Toronto.

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