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Sustained local transmission is being blamed for the most recent outbreak in cases of the mpox virus, the first outbreak since 2022, the Montreal public health department is reporting. The cases are clade II, the same strain behind the outbreak that struck hundreds of Montrealers two years ago.
The Direction régionale de santé publique de Montréal confirmed 21 cases of the virus since mid-August, bringing the total for 2024 to 25 cases. In 2023, public health authorities recorded 11 cases. In 2022, when Montreal was at the centre of a major mpox outbreak across North America, public health confirmed about 400 cases of the virus.
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Mpox, formerly referred to as monkeypox, is spread through prolonged physical contact and mostly affects men who have sex with men. That includes men, transgender, two-spirited, nonbinary and gender nonconforming people who have sexual contact with a male partner, as well as sex workers, those who worked or volunteered at LGBTQ+ events with sexuality on site and those who had contact with someone infected by the virus. Symptoms include painful rashes and skin lesions.
A two-dose mpox vaccine is available to those considered at risk through Clic Santé.
Most of the recent mpox infections were contracted in Montreal and only one case originated abroad, Montreal public health said. It also reported that vaccinated individuals tend to have less serious cases.
A new strain of the virus, clade Ib, has spread rapidly across several African countries and causes more serious illness that clade II. That strain has yet to make it to North America, but health experts say its eventual spread to Canada is likely.
The health department also called for vigilance among health professionals to identify other cases and promote the preventive vaccine to the target audience.
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