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Tag: Canada

Topic: immunity theftView all posts for the topic: immunity theft

Analysis: Why are B.C. kids sick all the time? Health experts explain

Published January 10, 2025

Still COVIDing Canada Posts

Published by: Surrey Now-Leader
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By Dr. Lyne Filiatrault, Arijit Chakravarty, T. Ryan Gregory

Simply put, COVID-19 infections weaken our immune systems. This makes us more prone to reinfection with SARS-CoV-2, infections with other viruses (e.g. RSV), reactivation of dormant viral infections (e.g. shingles, Herpes-Zoster virus), bacterial infections (Group A strep,TB) and even rare fungal infections. To make matters worse, the infections themselves may also be more severe. Being infected with SARS-CoV-2 and other viruses or bacteria at the same time can also make things worse, in adults as well as children.

Continue readingAnalysis: Why are B.C. kids sick all the time? Health experts explain
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Topic: vaccinesView all posts for the topic: vaccines

Feds issue new COVID vaccine guidance, says provinces now responsible for buying them

Published January 10, 2025

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Published by: The Canadian Press
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By Nicole Ireland

TORONTO – Federal funding for COVID-19 vaccines will stop this year and the provinces and territories will be responsible for buying them, as well as determining the timing of the vaccinations, the Public Health Agency of Canada says.

The agency published the information online on Friday, along with the National Advisory Committee on Immunization’s COVID-19 vaccine guidance for 2025 through to the summer of 2026.

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Topic: British ColumbiaView all posts for the topic: British Columbia

Flu driving spike in respiratory illness in B.C., but COVID-19 numbers low

Published January 9, 2025

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Published by: The Canadian Press
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VANCOUVER – New data shared by British Columbia’s Centre for Disease Control shows the province has one of the worst flu rates in Canada, as a holiday-season spike in respiratory illnesses continues.

But the data also shows the province has one of the lowest COVID-19 test positivity rates in the country, at about half the national rate.

Dr. Jennifer Vines, interim medical director for public health response at the B.C. CDC, says respiratory illness has been “steadily climbing” over the past several weeks, with RSV and influenza “driving the increase right now.”

Continue readingFlu driving spike in respiratory illness in B.C., but COVID-19 numbers low
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Topic: avian fluView all posts for the topic: avian flu

B.C. teen with avian flu discharged after weeks in hospital

Published January 9, 2025

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Published by: CTV News / The Canadian Press
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By Hannah Alberga

BC Children’s Hospital says a 13-year-old girl with avian flu was discharged Tuesday after weeks in hospital.

The patient was taken to a pediatric intensive care unit with respiratory failure and pneumonia on Nov. 8 and health officials said she tested positive for H5N1 a day later.

A recent medical journal chronicled the teen’s hospitalization in Vancouver, which involved tracheal intubation and supplemental oxygen.

Her family says in a statement that the experience has been “life-changing” and that they are grateful to have their daughter home.

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Topic: New BrunswickView all posts for the topic: New Brunswick

COVID isn’t just ‘a bad flu,’ and NBers need to know that: Coon

Published January 9, 2025

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Published by: Telegraph-Journal
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By Andrew Waugh

Green leader cites huge difference in death toll between viruses

“(COVID) isn’t just respiratory. We know that it affects other organs – not just the lungs, but the heart, the brain and other (organs). So there needs to be a much greater focus on prevention, and what does that look like based on what’s been learned about the circumstances and risk factors leading up to those deaths?”

“Related to that is there needs to be a greater effort at awareness and outreach to the general population on COVID – that this is not just the flu. And we know that science continues to progress here. It’s now well understood that the more (times) people get COVID, the greater their chance of long COVID.”

– David Coon, leader of the Green Party of New Brunswick, Canada
Continue readingCOVID isn’t just ‘a bad flu,’ and NBers need to know that: Coon
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Topic: British ColumbiaView all posts for the topic: British Columbia

Mask Rules Are Back in BC Hospitals

Published January 9, 2025

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Published by: The Tyee
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By Michelle Gamage

Masks are back for British Columbia’s health-care sector.

On Wednesday the province said it had reintroduced masking requirements for all health-care workers, volunteers, contractors, patients and visitors.

The masking requirements kicked off on Monday and will last for the duration of respiratory season, which usually ends once the weather improves in the spring.

Masks will be required “in areas where patients are actively receiving care, except when eating and/or drinking,” the Health Ministry said in a statement Wednesday.

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Topic: British ColumbiaView all posts for the topic: British Columbia

B.C. orders masks for hospitals, care facilities as flu, respiratory illness increase

Published January 8, 2025

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Published by: The Canadian Press
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VICTORIA – Medical masks are again required in British Columbia health-care facilities as provincial authorities say cases of respiratory illness are rising.

A statement from B.C.’s Health Ministry says workers, volunteers and visitors in facilities operated by provincial health authorities must wear masks in areas where patients are receiving care in order to prevent the spread of the flu, RSV and COVID-19.

The requirement spans hospitals, long-term care and assisted living facilities, outpatient clinics and ambulatory care settings, and it’s expected to remain in effect until the risk of illness decreases, likely in the spring.

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Topic: British ColumbiaView all posts for the topic: British Columbia

Masking required at all B.C. health-care facilities once again

Published January 8, 2025

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Published by: CBC News
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Masks must again be worn in health-care facilities across B.C., according to the province’s Health Ministry.

In an email to CBC News, the Ministry of Health said the requirement came into effect on Jan. 6, and everyone in health-care facilities, including staff, patients, visitors and volunteers, must wear medical masks “in areas where patients are actively seeking care.”

The move is in response to what the ministry says is a rise in influenza and RSV infections in B.C. COVID-19, it said, is “stable but showing early signs of an increase.”

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Topic: avian fluView all posts for the topic: avian flu

First Bird Flu Death in U.S. Reported in Louisiana

Published January 6, 2025

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Published by: The New York Times
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By Apoorva Mandavilli, Emily Anthes

A Louisiana patient who had been hospitalized with severe bird flu has died, the first such fatality in the United States, state health officials reported on Monday.

The patient was older than 65 and had underlying medical conditions, the officials said. The individual became infected with the bird flu virus, H5N1, after exposure to a backyard flock and wild birds.

There is no sign that the virus is spreading from person to person anywhere in the country, and Louisiana officials have not identified any other cases in the state. Pasteurized dairy products remain safe to consume.

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Topic: MontrealView all posts for the topic: Montreal

Locations exposed to measles in Montreal due to the appearance of a new case

Published January 6, 2025

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Published by: Radio-Canada
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Another case of measles has been detected in recent days by the Direction de la santé publique de Montréal, which is reminding hospital staff to apply the necessary measures to avoid transmission of this serious respiratory disease.

In a notice published on Sunday, the Direction régionale de santé publique revealed that “a Montréal adult was infected with measles following exposure to another unvaccinated adult with measles, in a location outside Montréal.”

Public Health states that these two cases are part of “the measles chain of transmission initiated by the case imported from a foreign country who attended the NATO Parliamentary Assembly at the Palais des congrès de Montréal in November.”

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Topic: avian fluView all posts for the topic: avian flu

7 southwestern Ontario poultry farms in quarantine after avian flu outbreak

Published January 5, 2025

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Published by: CBC News
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The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) says seven poultry farms in southwestern Ontario are under quarantine due to an avian flu outbreak.

These include four farms near Ingersoll, two in Strathroy and one in North Middlesex County. The first cases were detected on Dec. 14, 2024, and officials say the virus was transmitted to the area through migratory birds.

“The source is generally migratory birds, so it’s usually spread through direct contact with wild birds or indirectly through fecal matter or contaminated water, soil or feed,” said Grant Loney, incident commander for the Ontario Avian Influenza Response.

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Topic: avian fluView all posts for the topic: avian flu

In severe bird flu cases, the virus can mutate as it lingers in the body

Published January 3, 2025

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Published by: NBC News
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By Kaitlin Sullivan, Mustafa Fattah

A 13-year-old girl in British Columbia who was hospitalized with bird flu for several weeks late last year harbored a mutated version of the virus, according to a report published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The case was Canada’s first recorded human infection of avian influenza, which has infected at least 66 people in the United States since last March, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This includes the nation’s first severe case, in Louisiana in December.

Continue readingIn severe bird flu cases, the virus can mutate as it lingers in the body
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Topic: AlbertaView all posts for the topic: Alberta

Masking Fear

Published January 1, 2025

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Published by: Alberta Views
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By Paula Simons

COVID hasn’t forgotten us

Yes, I’m still wearing a mask. And yes, it takes some courage. Any time I post images of myself in a mask on my Facebook page, the insults and jeers come thick and fast, mocking me for wearing “a face diaper” or for being too stupid to know that COVID is “over.”

I’ve had strangers shout angry abuse at me as I walk through airports. But I think the most exasperating are the jokes and eyerolls from colleagues and family members, who seem to take my mask as a personal affront or insult. These friends and relations bug me—jokingly, but incessantly—to take it off, or tease me for what they perceive as my neurosis. I had one Senate colleague make fun of me for masking—only to tell me, in his next breath, that he was just getting over his fourth case of COVID.

— Senator Paula Simons
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Topic: avian fluView all posts for the topic: avian flu

B.C. teen no longer critical with avian flu, has been taken off oxygen

Published December 31, 2024

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Published by: Global News
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By Simon Little

We’re learning more about the B.C. teenager who became the first critically ill pediatric patient with avian influenza in North America earlier this fall, including some details about her recovery.

The new information was published in a case summary as a letter to the editor of the New England Journal of Medicine on Tuesday, signed by multiple doctors from the B.C. Centre for Disease Control, BC Children’s Hospital and Public Health Agency of Canada.

Prior to the publication of the letter, B.C.’s Ministry of Health had refused to provide updates on the teen’s status or their case “unless there is a need from a public health perspective to do so.”

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Topic: five yearsView all posts for the topic: five years

COVID-19 Turns Five Today. The Next Pandemic Is Lurking

Published December 31, 2024

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Published by: The Tyee
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By Crawford Kilian

Five years ago this morning on Dec. 31, 2019, I was sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee and my laptop. I was a member of “Flublogia,” a group of journalists, health scientists and kibitzers like me who had been tracking reports of disease outbreaks for years. I started every morning by checking my friends’ sites and Twitter feeds.

News had been slow lately; an Ebola outbreak in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo was fading out. But this morning, several of my friends had picked up a report from Hong Kong’s Centre for Health Protection about a “cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan, Hubei province.”

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Topic: avian fluView all posts for the topic: avian flu

American pet food sold in B.C. recalled after a cat died of bird flu

Published December 26, 2024

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Published by: CBC News
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Northwest Naturals, an Oregon-based pet food company, is recalling a batch of its two pound (one kilogram) Feline Turkey Recipe raw frozen pet food after a cat that died of H5N1 avian influenza was linked to the product.

The recalled pet food was sold in British Columbia and several American states — including Oregon, Washington and California — and lists the best before dates as between May 21, 2026, and June 23, 2026, the Portland company said in a press release on Tuesday.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed one house cat in Washington County, Ore., became infected with H5N1 and died after eating the pet food, the Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA) said in a press release on Thursday.

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Topic: OntarioView all posts for the topic: Ontario

Hospital workers who refused COVID-19 vaccine lose court battle

Published December 24, 2024

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Published by: BayToday.ca
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By Doug Coxson

It strains all credulity to accept that the Premier of Ontario, a number of cabinet ministers and 54 non-governmental defendants somehow conspired to concoct a plan to declare a ‘false pandemic’ all for the predominant purpose of harming the plaintiffs.

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Topic: vaccinesView all posts for the topic: vaccines

Why We Vaccinate

Published December 24, 2024

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Published by: The Tyee
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By Michelle Gamage

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.

Continue readingWhy We Vaccinate
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