West coast monkeypox funding to target stigma

As monkeypox cases continue to rise across Canada, new funding on the west coast is targeting stigma around the virus.

On behalf of the federal government, Vancouver-Centre MP Hedy Fry has announced $550,000 for 2SLGBTQ+ groups in B.C. and Alberta to help further their work.

“It will help community-based organizations work with gay and bisexual men in the regions that are most impacted by the outbreak,” Fry explained Friday.

Concerns over stigmatization have only increased since the virus first popped up. Nationally, there have been more than 1,050 infections confirmed so far.

“Most cases of monkeypox being reported in Canada are prevalent in gay and bisexual men but I just wanted to add that that does not mean this is the only group that is susceptible,” explained Vancouver-Centre MP Hedy Fry.

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Fry is echoing messaging that has been widely shared by medical professionals in recent months, that anyone can contract the monkeypox virus and that it is not isolated to any particular group.

She says there’s still much work to do to address the monkeypox outbreak — but also the stigma that surrounds the virus.

“This community has already has to cope with discrimination and stigma. I was a physician in the ’70s and ’80s when HIV/AIDS actually so stigmatized the community that people were afraid and ashamed to come out. We cannot do this anymore, this is not anyone’s fault,” Fry explained, speaking from the offices of Health Initiative for Men in Vancouver.

Three organizations on the west coast will split the funding, which is part of $1 billion the federal government announced weeks ago.

The recipients of the monkeypox funding are the Community Based Research Centre, H.I.M. Health Initiative for Men Society in Vancouver, and the Queer and Trans Health Collective in Edmonton.

Some of the money is to go toward helping organizations develop evidence-based educational resources nationally, as well as ensure smaller communities have access to “immediate financial support for programming demands that may arise as the moneypox outbreak evolves.”

“This funding is going to help organizations respond to the express needs of communities for prevention, education, awareness, and anti-stigma activities. And through engagement, discussions, organizations identified a need to be equipped with tools and information to help them spread the word, get the facts out there, and direct members of their communities to credible sources of information, resources, and health services,” Fry said, stressing the importance of quashing misinformation — something that has been prevalent through the pandemic.

People who have been infected with the monkeypox virus, which is an orthopoxvirus, typically present with symptoms including fever, a rash, and swollen lymph nodes. According to the World Health Organization, the incubation period of the virus can range from five to 21 days.

A vaccine is available, Edmonton being one of nine cities rolling it out to people over the past several weeks.

– With files from the Canadian Press