Canadian health authorities confirmed Thursday evening first two cases of monkeypox in the country, both in the city of Montreal, and says that 20 other cases are under investigation.

The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) and the Quebec Ministry of Health said in two press releases that tests carried out by the National Microbiology Laboratory with samples from two patients confirmed the first two cases of the disease.

This is the first time that the disease, which is caused by a virus endemic to Africa center and west and from where in the past were located isolated cases in the UK, US, Israel and Singaporehas been detected in Canada.

In the last days, people in the UK, Portugal and Spain have been diagnosed with the disease.

PHAC added that it is working with other health agencies to investigate new probable cases of monkeypox in the country.

For its part, The Quebec Ministry of Health estimates the number of possible cases under investigation at 20 in the Canadian province.

On Wednesday, US authorities detected a case in a male residing in the state of Massachusettsin the northeast of the country, and who had recently visited Montreal.

On Thursday morning, Montreal’s director of public health, Dr. Mylène Drouin, revealed that medical authorities had identified 17 probable cases of monkeypox in the city.

Drouin added that detection in United States of the case of patient who contracted the disease after traveling to Montreal alerted the Canadian authorities of the situation.

PHAC said in a statement that works with the United States Centers for Disease Control and with Quebec to investigate the potential exposure and contacts of the case detected in Massachusetts.

Experts have explained that transmission of monkeypox occurs through prolonged close contact with bodily fluidsrespiratory droplets or by sharing an infected person’s clothing.