The U.S. declared monkeypox a health emergency. Should Canada follow suit?

Monkeypox was declared a public health emergency Thursday in the U.S., and questions are being raised about whether Canada should follow suit.

In the wake of the United States’ declaration of monkeypox as a public health emergency Thursday, questions are being raised about whether Canada should follow suit as case numbers continue to rise.

The American move follows a similar announcement late last month by the World Health Organization declaring monkeypox a global health emergency — and in both cases, these developments trigger more attention and, in the U.S., more money and other resources to fight the virus.

Dr. Don Vinh, an infectious diseases specialist at McGill University Health Centre, says he believes Canada, as a member state of the WHO, has an obligation to follow suit now that the UN agency has declared the monkeypox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.

“We do need to respond accordingly,” he said. “I think formally declaring an emergency response helps sort of shepherd or steer administrations, which may be a bit ambivalent.”

Such a declaration in Canada wouldn’t have to look like the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the most recent event to prompt a Canadian declaration of a health emergency, he said.

But he said it could trigger a deployment of additional resources that would be helpful to those fighting the virus where it is spreading in Canada now — and prevent it from becoming harder to contain in the future.

“We have a window of opportunity right now where we have some control,” Vinh said.

“I think that what we have seen with COVID is that, if we have sort of a hodgepodge approach to this — some cities or provinces do it one way and others do it a different way — we’re going to lose our opportunity to control it.”