Monkeypox cases dropping in Vancouver Coastal: authority
Posted October 21, 2022 2:08 pm.
Last Updated October 21, 2022 2:22 pm.
The number of monkeypox cases in the Vancouver Coastal Health region has dropped, the authority says.
According to VCH Deputy Chief Medical Health Officer Dr. Mark Lysyshyn, cases spiked in the region in late July.
“Since then, we’ve been seeing fewer and few cases, we see just a couple of cases a week now,” he told CityNews.
“The outbreak in Vancouver Coastal Health has really slowed down or almost ended, likewise with the outbreak in B.C.”
Despite the dramatic decrease in cases, Lysyshyn says the authority still wants people to remain vigilant.
Second monkeypox vaccines
The focus now is on protecting the community against potential outbreaks in the future.
“There’s still monkeypox transmission happening in other countries, although it is coming under control there too. But there could be re-introductions to the community here so there’s a feeling that we have enough vaccine now to offer people a second dose — the vaccine was licenced as a two-dose vaccine and we always knew that but we wanted to make sure that we could give the vaccine to as many people as possible to stop the outbreak,” Lysyshyn explained, adding protecting the community is the top priority.
He notes it’s especially important for people who are most at risk to get two doses of the vaccine.
Vancouver Coastal Health has been offering the shots to the community through pop-up clinics and targeted rollouts.
Many of these clinics are held in places where people are engaging in sexual activity and where virus spread is possible. Lysyshyn says it’s important to be in these places because some people either don’t know they’re at risk or don’t want to come forward for whatever reason.
“So we are still trying to go to those places to get people their first doses, because that’s really the most important protection that people can get. We’re also running some bigger, sort of mass-community clinics where people can come in and get their second dose because that’s not as urgent an issue,” he said.
In the weeks ahead, VCH will host pop-in immunization clinics at various locations across Vancouver including Halloween themed events, bath houses, and in recent days, the SFU bookstore in Harbour Centre.
“We think the situation is under control here and this second dose campaign is really about protecting for the future.”
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Although VCH says there is an ample supply of vaccine for the second dose campaign, it is still limited, given we don’t know what could happen in the future.
As such, at some clinics, it’s administering the vaccine in a different way, by the “intradermal route.”
Lysyshyn says the practice has been done in the U.S.
