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Tag: British Columbia

Why We Vaccinate

There’s a concerning trend emerging in Canada and the United States when it comes to vaccine hesitancy.

In the United States, a key legal adviser to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the man tapped to be the next U.S. health secretary, is working to get rid of polio and hepatitis B vaccines in America, according to the New York Times. Kennedy himself has vocally opposed vaccines for years.

And here in Canada the overall childhood vaccination rate is declining, said Dr. Jason Wong, chief medical officer at the BC Centre for Disease Control. Wong is the deputy provincial health officer and a clinical associate professor in the University of British Columbia school of population and public health.

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Respiratory illness on the rise as B.C. residents begin busy holiday season

As B.C. begins the busy holiday season of social gatherings, health officials are reporting a steady increase in respiratory illness, including respiratory syncytial virus and walking pneumonia in children.

RSV is up 10.3 per cent over last week, predominantly in children in the Lower Mainland, the B.C. Centre for Disease Control reported in an update Friday.

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To deal with a doctor shortage, this B.C. city has decided to start paying them directly

A new clinic opening early next year on British Columbia’s Vancouver Island has a different structure it hopes will help attract and retain family doctors amid an ongoing physician shortage.

The Colwood Medical Clinic will be run not as a private practice, as is normally the case, but by the Greater Victoria municipality itself. The mayor says they have now hired their first doctor and plan on bringing on seven more.

All eight will be paid as municipal employees, receiving full medical benefits, vacation and a pension. They will also be free of the administrative and financial tasks doctors typically handle when running their own clinics, instead handing that work off to the city.

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CDC confirms first severe case of H5N1 bird flu in U.S.

A person in Louisiana has the first severe illness caused by bird flu in the U.S., health officials said Wednesday.

The patient had been in contact with sick and dead birds in backyard flocks, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said. Agency officials didn’t immediately detail the person’s symptoms.

Previous illnesses in the U.S. had been mild and the vast majority had been among farm workers exposed to sick poultry or dairy cows.

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Advocates Urge BC to Reinstate Healthcare Mask Protections Amid Rising Risks

DoNoHarm BC, Protect Our Province BC and the Canadian Covid Society warn of infection risks in healthcare

December 10, 2024 (British Columbia, Canada) – Advocacy groups in BC are calling on policy-makers to immediately reinstate healthcare mask requirements. The call comes as BC faces severe risks from COVID-19, a rise in “walking pneumonia,” local measles warnings, and Canada’s first human case of H5N1 avian influenza – which health officials warn could potentially turn into another pandemic.

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Single bird flu mutation could let it latch easily to human cells, study finds

Scientists from the Scripps Research Institute are reporting that it would take just a single mutation in the version of bird flu that has swept through U.S. dairy herds to produce a virus adept at latching on to human cells, a much simpler step than previously imagined.

To date, there have been no documented cases of one human passing avian influenza to another, the Scripps scientists wrote in their paper, which was published Thursday in the journal Science. The mutation they identified would allow the virus to attach to our cells by hitching itself to a protein on their surface, known as the receptor.

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BC Closes Bird Flu Investigation After No Further Cases Found

A British Columbia teenager who got sick with bird flu two weeks ago did not infect any people or animals they were in contact with while infectious, according to provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry.

The B.C. teenager was admitted to BC Children’s Hospital on Nov. 8 and remains in critical condition, although they have made some progress over the last few days and their care team is “hopeful that they will recover,” Henry said at a press conference Tuesday.

Because there have been no new cases and there are no new leads, the public health investigation will be closed for now, Henry said.

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B.C. teen with avian flu remains in critical care, no other cases identified

The teenager who is infected with the first human case of H5N1 avian influenza acquired in Canada remains in critical care at BC Children’s Hospital, officials said Tuesday.

Speaking at a news conference in Victoria, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said the young person is stable, but still very sick and on a respirator.

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California reveals suspected avian flu case in child with mild symptoms

The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) today said tests have identified a suspected avian flu infection in a child from Alameda County who had mild upper respiratory symptoms and no known contact with infected animals.

If confirmed, the case would mark the second avian flu infection in a child in North America from a yet undetermined source. Last week, health officials in Canada reported an H5N1 infection in a previously healthy British Columbia teen who is hospitalized in critical condition.

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Bird flu in Canada may have mutated to become more transmissible to humans

The teenager hospitalized with bird flu in British Columbia, Canada, may have a variation of the virus that has a mutation making it more transmissible among people, early data shows – a warning of what the virus can do that is especially worrisome in countries such as the US where some H5N1 cases are not being detected.

The US “absolutely” is not testing and monitoring bird flu cases enough, which means scientists could miss mutated cases like these, said Richard Webby, a virologist at St Jude children’s research hospital’s department of infectious diseases.

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H5N1 bird flu virus in Canadian teenager displays mutations demonstrating virus’ risk

The genetic sequence of the H5N1 bird flu virus that infected a teenager in British Columbia shows that the virus had undergone mutational changes that would make it easier for that version of H5N1 to infect people, scientists who have studied the data say.

There’s currently no evidence the teenager, who remains in critical condition in hospital, infected anyone else. If that’s the case, it is likely this mutated version of the virus would die out when the teen’s illness resolves. The source of the teen’s infection has not been determined, so it’s impossible to know for sure if the mutations were in the virus that infected him or her. But scientists think it is more likely that the mutations developed during the course of his or her infection.

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Canadian teen’s bird flu infection is not the version found in cows

A Canadian teenager who is in critical condition after contracting H5N1 bird flu was infected with a version of the virus that is different from the one circulating in dairy cattle in the United States, Canadian authorities announced Wednesday.

The National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg confirmed the infection was indeed caused by the H5N1 virus. But genetic sequencing showed that it is of a genotype that has been found in wild birds, not the version that has been circulating in dairy cattle in the U.S.

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Testing confirms B.C. teen infected with Canada’s first human case of avian flu

Federal health officials have confirmed that a B.C. teen who is currently in hospital has Canada’s first human case of H5N1 avian flu.

Testing at the national microbiology labaratory in Winnipeg confirmed the case Wednesday, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada.

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Avoid contact with sick or dead birds, health officials urge, amid concerns about avian flu

Carolyn Law didn’t think much of it when a snow goose landed in her Richmond, B.C., backyard, on Halloween.

But hours later it had barely moved. Then it started bobbing its head repeatedly. About eight hours after she first saw the bird, it rolled over, began convulsing and died.

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Canadian teen with suspected avian flu in critical condition

A British Columbia (BC) teen from the Fraser Health region who was hospitalized with an earlier announced presumptive positive H5 avian flu infection is in critical condition, the province’s top health official said today.

In a media briefing streamed live on Canada’s Global News, Bonnie Henry, MD, BC’s health officer, shared the latest investigation findings, noting that the patient’s symptoms began on November 2, and he or she was seen that day at a hospital emergency room. She said initial symptoms included conjunctivitis, fever, and cough.

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B.C. teen with bird flu is in critical condition, says Dr. Bonnie Henry

B.C.’s provincial health officer says the teenager who has tested positive for bird flu is in critical condition in B.C. Children’s Hospital.

Dr. Bonnie Henry says the teenager, who has the first presumptive human case of bird flu contracted in Canada, was admitted to hospital late Friday. B.C. tests last week confirmed the teenager has the virus, but are waiting confirmation from a national laboratory in Winnipeg.

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B.C. investigating 1st presumptive human avian flu case in Canada

British Columbia health officials are investigating what’s believed to be Canada’s first human case of avian influenza after a teenager tested presumptively positive for the disease, the Ministry of Health announced Saturday.

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First-ever human case of H5 avian influenza in Canada found in B.C.: officials

B.C. health officials say they have detected Canada’s first-ever case of H5 avian influenza in a human.

In a news release Saturday afternoon, the office of the provincial health officer said a positive test for the H5 influenza virus was performed at the B.C. Centre for Disease Control’s public health laboratory.

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