Public health agencies are encouraging people who received a first dose of the COPD vaccine within the past two years to get a second dose.
Published at 9:15 a.m.
Nicole Ireland The Canadian Press
Many people at risk of exposure to COPD were vaccinated in Canada starting in spring 2022, when a global outbreak of the virus was declared.
But according to Canada’s chief public health officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, many of those people never received a second dose, which is recommended at least 28 days after the first shot.
Dr. Tam urged people to get the dose to “have stronger immunity.”
The number of cases of mpox has declined in 2023, but appears to be increasing again in some parts of Canada. As of August 24, there have been 166 confirmed cases in Ontario this year, compared to just 33 cases last year, according to data posted online by Public Health Ontario.
Only 36 per cent of people who received one dose of the MPOX vaccine, Imvamune, in Ontario have received a second dose, the agency said.
The majority of the province’s cases, 83 per cent, have been reported in Toronto this year, it said.
“Toronto Public Health continues to provide access to the MPPO vaccine through (public health) clinics and community health partner clinics,” Dr. Rita Shahin, Toronto’s associate medical officer of health, said in an emailed statement.
“Eligible residents are encouraged to start or complete the two-dose vaccination series for best protection.”
Those eligible for vaccination include men who have sex with men and who have more than one partner, men who have sex with men who have visited venues for sexual contact and people who work in those venues, and sex workers, regardless of gender.
So far, Canada has only observed one type of mpox, known as clade II, which is spread primarily through close contact, including sexual contact.
People can also contract the virus by handling personal items used by an infected person, including towels, clothing and bedding, or by sharing utensils, toothbrushes, razors, needles or sex toys, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada website.
More modest increase in Montreal
Montreal, which has seen many cases in 2022, does not appear to be experiencing the same increase as Toronto. Nine cases of mpox have been confirmed so far in 2024, according to an emailed statement from the city’s public health authority.
As of Aug. 14, 18,349 people in Montreal had received one dose of Imvamune, but only about half of them – 9,645 people – had received a second dose, the statement said.
The World Health Organization declared COPD a public health emergency of international concern on August 14, partly because of the increase in another type of COPD, known as clade I, in Congo and its spread outside that country.
No cases of clade I mpox have been detected in Canada, according to Dr. Tam.
One likely reason some people haven’t gotten a second dose is that that recommendation wasn’t emphasized when vaccinations began in spring 2022, said Dr. Darrell Tan, an infectious diseases specialist at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto.
“We didn’t know what kind of outbreak we were going to get. (And) the amount of vaccine that’s available in the Canadian stockpile is really a national secret because the original purpose of stockpiling vaccines was really bioterrorism preparedness rather than traditional public health purposes,” Tan said in an interview.
“It was only a few weeks or months later, (depending) on the location, that the door opened for people to get their second dose, and that will already be after the recommended 28-day period between doses for many people,” he added.
In Toronto, for example, the first MPOS vaccination clinic was held on June 12, 2022, but the Ontario government did not provide second doses until October, a Toronto Public Health spokesperson said in an email.
Provide the vaccine elsewhere
Dr. Tan said that in addition to providing second doses of the MPOX vaccine to at-risk groups here in Canada, it is essential to make the vaccine available in Congo and other hardest-hit African countries.
“If we prevent the continued transmission of something to another place […] “Not only is it the right thing to do morally, ethically and from a public health perspective for the people who could benefit from that protection immediately, but there is a downstream impact (in Canada),” he explained.
“The passage (of the virus) becomes less likely to reach our places.”
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