A Halifax research firm has found that about half of Canadians are concerned about monkeypox to some extent.
In a report published on Thursday, Narrative Research said about 53 per cent of Canadians said they were “to some extent” concerned, while 28 per cent weren’t concerned at all.
The survey was conducted on 1,233 adult Canadians from Aug. 2 to Aug. 4, the week before monkeypox cases in the country surpassed 1,000.
According to the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), monkeypox is a viral infectious disease related to smallpox, from which most people recover on their own after a few weeks, but people can become very sick and could die in some circumstances.
It typically requires skin-to-skin or skin-to-mouth contact with an infected patient’s lesions to spread, though people can also become infected through contact with the clothing or bedsheets of someone who has monkeypox lesions.
As of Thursday, there are over 1,200 confirmed cases in Canada — the majority of which are in Ontario. Nova Scotia and New Brunswick have confirmed one case each in the past weeks.
Narrative Research said in the new report that about 15 per cent of Canadians are extremely concerned about the outbreak, while 19 per cent are indifferent or unsure.
“When compared to women, men are more likely to be unconcerned with the outbreak,” read the report. The numbers showed 24 per cent of women and 32 per cent of men gave that answer.
The level of concern over the monkeypox outbreak was consistent across the country, but it did vary by age demographic.
“Younger residents, such as Gen Z and Millennials are more likely to be extremely concerned compared to their counterparts, Gen X and Boomers.”
The data in the survey was weighted based on the 2016 Census by gender, age, and region to reflect population distribution.
— With files from Heidi Lee.
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