Limited vaccine supply could thwart Canada's efforts to contain monkeypox

As an unprecedented global monkeypox outbreak keeps growing, Canada remains opaque about its vaccine stockpile — even as advocates and medical experts warn the country may lack enough supply to meet current demand, with many Canadians being offered just one round of what's typically a two-dose shot in order to stretch supplies.

Countries are also hastily procuring more vaccine shipments while a key manufacturer is striving to keep up with global orders, all to stop the spread of a virus that has struck more than 14,000 people globally so far this year.

"Every effort must be made to contain this infection," Dr. Rosamund Lewis, the World Health Organization's technical lead for monkeypox, told CBC News.

More than 600 cases of monkeypox virus, or MPXV, have been identified in Canada to date. 

An often painful, lengthy illness, which remains contagious until lesions are fully healed, the current MPXV outbreak is overwhelmingly affecting men who have sex with men, though the virus is typically known for infecting people more broadly, including women and children.

Decades after the end of widespread smallpox vaccination — which offered cross-protection against this virus as well — there is now a "large pool of susceptible people all around the world," Lewis said.

So will enough people gain protection in time to stop these outbreaks and prevent MPXV from taking hold? Some medical experts are hopeful — but given the concern around vaccine supply as cases continue to rise in Canada and the world, others aren't so sure this virus will be contained.

As MPXV cases rose in Canada in recent weeks, so did the number of vaccines being offered. 

In major cities in Ontario and Quebec, which have experienced roughly 90 per cent of the country's monkeypox cases, more than 20,000 shots have been doled out so far.

One front-line physician in Toronto told CBC News that while new patients with the virus keep seeking treatment, demand for the shots is starting to slow.

"We did have excellent uptake, right at the start of the vaccine rollout in May and June, but we need to continue to scale it up," said Dr. Darrell Tan, an infectious disease specialist at St. Michael's Hospital who is currently treating about 10 MPXV patients.

It's too early to say if cases will stabilize, and for now vaccine supply appears to be limited, he said, adding it would be "devastating" if these outbreaks aren't contained and the virus establishes itself long-term within sexual networks.

In B.C., where there are now 40 confirmed cases and counting, vaccines are being distributed at men's health clinics and bathhouses in Vancouver. There, local officials warned demand is already far outpacing the supply provided through the federal stockpile.

"We have big outbreaks happening in Toronto and in Montreal, and so they've requested big amounts of vaccines," Dr. Mark Lysyshyn, deputy chief medical health officer with Vancouver Coastal Health, told CBC News in mid-July. "We have a smaller outbreak here, but we want to avoid getting into the situation that they're seeing there."