Public health is contact tracing to try to reduce the spread of monkeypox in New Brunswick.
Yves Leger, medical vice president for health, said the county’s first confirmed case of the virus, which was announced last Friday, did not come out of New Brunswick.
Leger said in an interview Tuesday that this “reasonably” means that the person contracted the virus from either a New Brunswick resident or someone traveling in the county. Transformation.
To reduce the spread of the virus, public health is following up contacts of the case and trying to find the possible source of infection.
“We’re also looking back to try and find out where the case may have become infected,” Leger said.
New Brunswick has been given 140 doses of the monkeypox vaccine, which is reserved for managing close contacts of any identified cases of the virus.
From the original batch, Leger said, a few doses were given to a small number of contacts of the confirmed case.
Leger said Public Health is in discussions with the federal government for a “significant increase” in vaccine supplies. Next, public health wants to make it available to high-risk groups to try to prevent more cases.
Leger said the virus is transmitted from an infected person to another person when they are in close or direct contact. However, monkeypox is not “as easily transmitted from person to person” as SARS-CoV-2. So the risk to the general public remains low, he said.
“People most at risk of infection are usually either household contacts with people living with the condition, who share space regularly for many hours, and who come into contact with the same environments, for example, or who are intimate sexual partners.”
After exposure, symptoms usually tend to appear within six to 21 days.
The first symptoms, called a prodrome that appear before the monkeypox rash, include:
Two days later, a rash appeared after a fever. The rash often begins on the face but can affect other parts of the body, such as the hands, feet, mouth, and genitals.
The rash usually begins as flat red spots, turning into raised bumps that can contain fluid.
“This typical start-to-finish picture can take two to four weeks between the time the first symptoms of the rash appear and disappear completely,” Leger said.
However, progress does not always happen in the same way.
“Sometimes the rash is the first thing that appears before other symptoms, and sometimes the rash spreads all over the body,” Leger said.
He said the person with monkeypox is recovering well.
“At this time, public health continues to closely monitor their situation.”
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