Mpox is on the rise. What Canadians need to know as the virus spreads

As the number of mpox cases escalates in Africa and creeps upward in other countries like Canada, the World Health Organization (WHO), on Wednesday, again declared the virus a global public health emergency.

The declaration comes more than two years after the WHO first declared a global mpox emergency in 2022, which subsequently subsided in many regions. However, the virus has surged dramatically since January 2024, particularly in Africa, prompting health officials to describe the outbreak as “unprecedented.”

And here in Canada, Toronto Public Health is urging eligible residents to get vaccinated against mpox after a sharp rise in cases. On Tuesday, the local health unit said as of July 31 there have been a total of 93 confirmed cases of the virus compared with 21 cases for the same period in 2023.

As health officials grapple with the ongoing spread of the virus, complicated by the emergence of a deadlier strain in Africa, Dr. Mark Loeb, an infectious disease physician at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont., expressed concern about its potential to continue spreading.

“There’s an explosion of cases in Central Africa, particularly in the (Democratic Republic of Congo), and there cases that are occurring in the surrounding countries, including Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda,” he told Global News.

“I think the countries that are under-resourced in terms of surveillance and in terms of management will have more deaths. And it’s affecting very young children. (There are) very high rates of mortality with this strain – it’s really important to get it under control.”

Originally identified in monkeys in 1958, mpox, previously known as monkeypox, was primarily confined to central and western Africa, and transmitted through close contact