Canada reports 15 cases of monkeypox, more expected

Toronto: Health authorities in Canada said Tuesday they had identified 10 new cases of monkeypox in Quebec, bringing the total number to 15, with additional cases expected in other provinces.

Monkeypox, detected in recent weeks in Europe and North America, is a rare disease originating in Africa which usually clears up on its own.

“We expect more cases to be confirmed in the coming days,” said Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos, who said more samples were being analyzed.

He said the federal government had made available the Imvamune vaccine and other drugs stored in the national emergency strategic reserve.

The first doses of the vaccine were delivered to Quebec province on Tuesday.

While there is no specific vaccine for monkeypox, a smallpox vaccine can be used as protection in case of contact.

Canada had confirmed its first two cases last week in the French-speaking province.

Monkeypox is an infectious disease that is caused by a virus transmitted to humans from infected animals, most commonly rodents. But the virus was first discovered in 1958 in a group of macaques that were being studied for research purposes, hence its name, according to Inserm, a major French medical research institute.  

Notorious Vietnamese hacker turns government cyber agent At the height of his career, Vietnamese hacker Ngo Minh Hieu made a fortune stealing the personal data of hundreds of millions of Americans.

Now he has been recruited by his own authoritarian government to hunt, he says, the kind of cyber-criminal he once used to be.

After serving seven years in US prisons for stealing some 200 million Americans’ personal details, Hieu was sent back to Vietnam, which imposes some of the world’s strictest curbs on online freedom.

Hieu says he has since turned his back on his criminal past.

“I fell to the bottom, now I am trying to climb up again,” the 32-year-old told AFP.

SOURCE: AFP