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.
Comments closedJust over 52,000 New Brunswickers have received the latest COVID-19 vaccine, and more than 91,000 have received this year’s flu shot since they became available on Oct. 3, according to the government.
Comments closedAs bird flu infections continue to rise among livestock and humans in the United States, surveillance is ramping up in Canada.
Wastewater testing for the H5N1 bird flu virus is set to begin in the coming weeks in Ontario communities considered at high risk, said Rob Delatolla, whose University of Ottawa lab will lead the wastewater surveillance as part of a research program based at the University of Guelph. That will likely mean testing wastewater in communities in agricultural regions of the province. It is unclear whether there will also be testing in larger cities.
Comments closedA Kingston, Ont., doctor celebrated for organizing drive-thru vaccination clinics that helped thousands get shots at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic is now being ordered to pay back more than $600,000 in fees for those same services.
Dr. Elaine Ma said she organized 45 mass vaccination clinics that administered roughly 35,000 doses between April 2021 and the following February.
Her work was recognized by the Ontario College of Family Physicians, which granted her its Award of Excellence in 2021, in part pointing to Ma’s role in boosting local vaccination rates.
Comments closedVaccine production is nearly three years behind schedule at a federally owned plant in Montreal and the future of a deal between Ottawa and an American company to make COVID-19 vaccines here is now under review.
Comments closed(Montreal) The rehabilitation process is long for patients with long COVID, which can limit professionals in their acceptance of new patients. This issue, added to the other ills of the healthcare system, means that some 4,000 patients end up in the network of long COVID clinics, half of whom are on the waiting list.
Comments closedWhile on the front line at the height of the COVID-19 health crisis, many healthcare workers are struggling to access care after contracting long COVID. Only 12% of healthcare workers who suffer from it have received rehabilitation care, according to a research report by the Institut national de santé publique du Québec (INSPQ).
Comments closedThe number of sick days employees working for the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat took during the month of September skyrocketed as the department urged public servants to make their way back to their offices at least three days a week.
According to departmental data, TBS employees took a total of 2,191 sick days between Sept. 1 and Sept. 30.
That was up significantly from previous years. During the same period in 2023, employees took 1,708.9 sick days. In 2022, they took 1,477.9 sick days and in 2021 they had 1,075.4 sick days. In 2020, during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, TBS employees’ sick days totalled a mere 827.6 days.
Comments closedAs COVID-19 continues to circulate widely, a report from the INSPQ warns that the risk of getting long COVID increases with each reinfection, and notes that the Quebec health system is failing to help the growing number of people who have had persistent symptoms for months or even years.
The report by the Institut national de la santé publique du Québec (INSPQ), which surveyed thousands of health workers in Quebec who were infected between the beginning of the pandemic and summer 2023, was released quietly on Monday. Yet, this report warns that post COVID-19 condition, commonly known as long COVID, is affecting more and more people.
« This is an important and real issue. We want to raise awareness among the public and public health authorities,” says Sara Carazo, one of the authors of the report.
Comments closedLong COVID can have wide-ranging impacts, but is most commonly associated with brain fog, breathing difficulties and debilitating fatigue.
“Long COVID has really mystified a lot of physicians and scientists,” according to Dr. Douglas Fraser. Fraser is a researcher with Western University’s Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, based in London, Ont.
Comments closedI’m coughing, looking at my plans for the day, cancelling each one.
As an elected official, this is not a good look. We wish to be out and about with people. We certainly don’t want to be coughing all over our constituents in this time of COVID.
But elected officials get sick too.
Like most parents in the community I represent, when I start to feel sick I think back to all the places my family and I have been, and also what plans we have coming up.
Comments closedThe days of access to free rapid COVID-19 tests are over, unless you stumble across a pharmacy with a few boxes left, and most Albertans wishing to test for the virus now have to pay out of pocket.
The Alberta government has received its full allotment through the free federal government program, which ended earlier this month. Now its entire stockpile has been distributed.
Comments closedEastern Ontario’s children’s hospital is reintroducing safety measures for the viral season, including requiring people to wear a mask in clinical areas and waiting rooms and limiting the number of caregivers accompanying a patient to an appointment.
CHEO says the viral season can bring a “triple threat for children and youth” with seasonal influenza, COVID-19 and RSV.
Comments closedToronto’s University Health Network (UHN) is upping its masking requirements amid respiratory virus season.
As of Oct. 28, patients, visitors and staff will need to wear a mask while waiting for care, receiving care and in high-risk areas, UHN said in an update on its website.
Comments closedNew Brunswick has taken steps to make Paxlovid more affordable for some people at higher risk of becoming severely ill or dying from COVID-19, now that the federal government has stopped supplying the anti-viral medication to provinces for free.
But the drug designed to reduce symptoms from an infection and shorten the period of illness remains out of reach for many, either because of the cost of about $1,400 for a five-day course, a lack of timely access, or reduced eligibility.
Comments closedDates for flu and Covid vaccination clinics in the Northwest Territories have been made public on the territorial health authority’s website.
The website now shows dates in November for Yellowknife, late October for Fort Smith and Hay River, and mid-October in Inuvik.
Not all communities have specific dates. Some residents are told to contact their local health centre instead.
Comments closedQuebec public health authorities on Monday launched the annual influenza and COVID-19 vaccination campaign, administering the shots first to people in long-term care before making the vaccines available for free to the general population as of Oct. 16.
And for the first time this year, medical staff will be immunizing infants up the age of 18 months against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), a seasonal pathogen that often leads to overcrowded pediatric emergency rooms during the winter. Health Canada has approved a monoclonal antibody therapy, Nirsevimab, which is now being injected into premature infants in Quebec before they leave the hospital.
Comments closed