MONTREAL – The Quebec Ministry of Health says the province now has a total of 98 confirmed cases of smallpox.
That number on Thursday is up eight cases from the 90 reported earlier this week.
Smallpox is a rare disease that comes from the same family of smallpox viruses that the World Health Organization declared eradicated worldwide in 1980.
Smallpox is not easily spread between people and is transmitted through prolonged close contact via respiratory droplets, direct contact with skin lesions or body fluids, or through contaminated clothing or bedding.
Quebec began offering a smallpox vaccine to some close contacts of infected people in late May, and the Ministry of Health says it has since vaccinated 1,622 people.
Alberta, Ontario and British Columbia have also reported cases of smallpox, although the vast majority of cases in Canada are in Quebec.