Canada public health agency urges gay, bisexuals to practice safe sex due to monkeypox outbreak

Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, told a news briefing Wednesday that despite the serious concern about the global monkeypox outbreak, public health officials and governments are optimistic about the opportunity to contain the spread.

So far the disease has been limited almost exclusively to men, said Tam with 99 percent of infected individuals in Canada being men who have sex with men.

Tam added that the monkeypox outbreak in Canada can be stopped by employing strategies including a public awareness campaign focusing on gay and bisexual men through community organizations, educational settings, and dating apps like Grindr.

Tam said that learning more about the disease, including how to recognize its symptoms, is critical in the fight against its spread.

Tam said there are 745 cases in Canada now

PHAC officials said that out of 70,000 doses of the Imvamune vaccine sent to the provinces about 27,000 have been administered.

Tam said that Canada has a sufficient supply of the vaccine for now and urged vulnerable groups, such as men who have sex with men, to get vaccinated to curb the spread.

Michael Kwag, a policy director at the Community-Based Research Centre, a Canadian non-profit focused on health in the LGBTQ community was reported saying that men who have sex with men are already lining up to receive the vaccine.

(Reporting by Asha Bajaj)