Perth emergency physician Dr. Alan Drummond has never seen anything like it. Drummond has treated five or six patients with pneumonia during almost every shift…
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Topic: avian fluView all posts for the topic: avian flu
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.
Comments closedTopic: avian fluView all posts for the topic: avian flu
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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Topic: long COVIDView all posts for the topic: long COVID
Everything Wrong with Canada’s Proposed Long COVID Recommendations
Researchers involved in the organizations Cochrane Canada and the McMaster GRADE Centre at McMaster University are developing guidelines to prevent and treat Long COVID in Canada. Their effort is supported by the Public Health Agency of Canada and their recommendations would likely have major sway in the way Long COVID is treated if adopted.
Every month, they release new recommendations and provide an opportunity for public comment. On November 20th, the group released a new set of Canadian Post-COVID Condition (CAN-PCC) recommendations which propose harmful and ineffective treatments: Exercise to prevent Long COVID and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to treat post-exertional malaise (PEM).
Comments closedTopic: AlbertaView all posts for the topic: Alberta
The story of Alberta’s rural long COVID program that never was
As better diagnosis and symptom management emerged for people with long COVID, researchers in Alberta set to work creating a program that could remotely connect urban specialists and rural patients. Between development and clinical implementation, the project was shelved.
With the province closing its clinics dedicated to treating people with long COVID, the story of Alberta’s innovative rural outreach program appears destined to remain incomplete.
Long COVID, or post COVID syndrome, refers to patients who are still experiencing symptoms twelve weeks after the initial infection. According to Health Canada, the condition affects about 1 in 9 adults who have had COVID.
Comments closedTopic: mpoxView all posts for the topic: mpox
Manitoba reports first case of mpox, province says risk to public is low
The Manitoba government is reporting the first confirmed case of mpox in the province, noting it is also a strain that has not been seen in Canada before.
The province said a confirmed case of clade Ib mpox has been identified in Manitoba and is related to travel in central and eastern Africa.
“The individual was assessed and diagnosed shortly after returning to Manitoba and is currently isolating,” the province said in a news release. “Based on travel history and symptoms, specimens were tested and confirmed by the National Microbiology Laboratory for clade Ib mpox virus.”
Comments closedTopic: convoy occupationView all posts for the topic: convoy occupation
Pat King found guilty of mischief for role in ‘Freedom Convoy’
Pat King, one of the most prominent figures of the 2022 “Freedom Convoy” in Ottawa, has been found guilty on five counts including mischief and disobeying a court order.
A judge in an Ottawa courtroom Friday said the Crown proved beyond a reasonable doubt that King was guilty on one count each of mischief, counselling others to commit mischief and counselling others to obstruct police. He was also found guilty of two counts of disobeying a court order.
Comments closedTopic: pro-virus policiesView all posts for the topic: pro-virus policies
RFK Jr. is a danger to health care in the U.S. — and Canada
You would think that the return of a Kennedy scion to the White House would be a moment to celebrate, at least for many of a particular political stripe. But the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) in the new Trump administration has left many aghast, especially doctors, scientists, and educators.
Despite president John F. Kennedy having famously championed the polio vaccine, his nephew, RFK Jr., is an avowed anti-vaccination zealot, blaming a host of repeatedly unproven ills on such inoculations.
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Masking is a right
Content warning: brief mentions of genocide.
We’re still in a pandemic nearly five years after the first outbreak of COVID-19, but some places in the US and Canada are criminalizing the use of face masks in public. North Carolina has passed a law that restricts wearing masks, the governor of New York supports similar restrictions, and university campuses in California have enacted policies limiting masks. Here in Canada, people in Toronto have been arrested for wearing masks while protesting. Each of these restrictions seek to stop people from “concealing their identities.” The bans present multiple problems: the first is that they pose a risk to public health, and particularly the safety of disabled people. Second, they specifically target activists protesting against the genocide of Palestinians. Both of these issues are related to the right to keep our communities safe, which should not be questioned.
Comments closedTopic: avian fluView all posts for the topic: avian flu
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.
Comments closedTopic: avian fluView all posts for the topic: avian flu
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.
Comments closedTopic: air qualityView all posts for the topic: air quality
Student’s article spurs inspection of school’s HVAC system
Kingston Secondary School will have its automated heating, ventilation and air conditioning system inspected next week following the publication of a student-written article that found the concentration of carbon dioxide in the school exceeded safe levels.
Principal Darren Seymour sent a letter to students, staff and parents last week in response to the article that appeared in “The Bears Bulletin.”
Comments closedTopic: avian fluView all posts for the topic: avian flu
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.
Comments closedTopic: avian fluView all posts for the topic: avian flu
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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