MONTREAL, BALIPOST.com – The first two cases of infection with the monkeypox virus have been confirmed by the Public Health Agency of Canada after authorities in the province of Quebec said they were investigating 17 suspected cases.

Quoted from Antara news agency, Friday (20/5), a number of countries, including Portugal and Spain, have reported cases of monkeypox in recent weeks, with the American case identified by Massachusetts public health officials on (5/18) in a new man – recently traveled to the Canadian province of Quebec.

“This evening, the province of Quebec was informed that two samples received by the National Microbiology Laboratory (LNM) were positive for monkeypox. “These are the first two confirmed cases in Canada,” said the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC).

He added that Canada has never had a case of monkeypox. Monkeypox, which occurs mainly in west and central Africa, is a rare viral infection similar to human smallpox, although milder.

The case was first reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the 1970s. The number of cases in West Africa has increased over the past decade. Symptoms include fever, headache, and rash starting on the face and spreading throughout the body.

Health authorities in Montreal, Quebec’s largest city, told reporters Thursday morning that there was a link between the U.S. case of monkeypox in Massachusetts and a number of suspected cases in the Montreal area.

PHAC said a U.S. citizen who recently traveled to Canada from the United States by private transportation “may have been infected before or during” their visit to Montreal. (Kmb/Balipost)