Canada confirms the first two cases of Monkeypox, while Australia reports a possible case

Monkeypox is an unusual virus-related infection that is similar to human smallpox but is milder. It is frequently seen in the west and central Africa.

After specialists in Quebec province stated they were examining 17 suspected cases, Canada's public health department verified the first two instances of monkeypox virus infections in the country on Thursday. Meanwhile, Australian authorities announced on Friday that they had discovered a possible case of monkeypox in a recently returned visitor to Europe and that confirmatory testing was underway.

As said by the New South Wales state health department, a man in his 40s experienced a minor disease several days later, after returning back to Sydney, with symptoms clinically similar to monkeypox. According to the statement, the man and a household contact are isolating themselves at home.

Monkeypox has been detected in several places recently, including Portugal and Spain, with a US case being found by Massachusetts public health officials on Wednesday in a man who had just visited the Canadian province of Quebec.

"The Authority of Quebec got notification tonight that two samples sent by the NML (National Microbiology Laboratory) were positive for monkeypox. The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) announced in a statement that "these are the first two cases confirmed in Canada," adding that the country has never had monkeypox cases previously.

monkeypox was first discovered in the 1970s in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In the previous decade, the number of cases in West Africa has grown. Fever, headaches, and can have skin rashes that begin on the face and then to the rest of the body are among the symptoms.

Earlier on Thursday, health officers in Montreal, Quebec's largest city, said to reporters that a link was discovered between a monkeypox case in Massachusetts and a few suspected cases in the Montreal area.

The US individual who recently toured Canada via private transportation "may have been diseased before or during" his visit to Montreal, according to the PHAC.