Leeds, Grenville & Lanark District Health Unit - Media Release - July 11, 2022

First confirmed case of monkeypox in Leeds, Grenville Lanark

The Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit is following up on the first individual living in the Leeds, Grenville and Lanark area with laboratory-confirmed monkeypox. For information about monkeypox, visit the Health Unit’s website: Fact Sheets - Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit. 

Monkeypox can spread from person to person by close face to face contact with respiratory secretions of an infected individual, or direct contact with the skin lesions of monkeypox, or contact with contaminated clothing or bedding. Common household disinfectants can kill the monkeypox virus. 

In Ontario, the most commonly reported risk factors for developing monkeypox infection  include engaging in sexual or intimate contact (e.g., hugging, kissing, cuddling) with new and/or more than one partner. https://www.publichealthontario.ca/-/media/Documents/M/2022/monkeypox-episummary.pdf?sc_lang=en  

Symptoms of monkeypox usually develop one to two weeks (range five to 21 days) after exposure, and can include fever, headache, fatigue, swollen lymph nodes and rash/lesions (which may appear in the mouth/face or genitals and then spread to other areas.)  If an individual has any monkeypox symptoms, they should contact their healthcare provider and avoid close contact with others until symptoms have been diagnosed, and rash/lesion(s) has healed.