Ottawa, Jul 14 (IANS): The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) confirmed a total of 477 cases of monkeypox in the country as of Wednesday.

PHAC provided an update on these confirmed cases which included 284 cases from Quebec, 156 from Ontario, 29 from British Columbia and eight from Alberta, Xinhua news agency reported.

Going forward, case numbers may change as provinces and territories continue to receive confirmatory testing results from PHAC's National Microbiology Laboratory, PHAC said.

According to PHAC, provinces and territories are reviewing case data in their jurisdictions, and those meeting the case definition will be reported to PHAC to be included in the national investigation.

National Microbiology Laboratory is performing diagnostic testing for the virus that causes monkeypox. In addition, the laboratory is conducting whole genome sequencing, an enhanced fingerprint analysis, on Canadian samples of monkeypox, PHAC said.

Monkeypox is a sylvatic zoonosis that may cause infections in humans and the disease usually occurs in forested parts of Central and West Africa. It is caused by the monkeypox virus which belongs to the orthopoxvirus family, according to the World Health Organization.