Although COVID-19 no longer makes daily headlines, some are on a mission to spread awareness about the impact the virus is still having on the community.
The University of Waterloo hosted a silent walk on Thursday to raise awareness about the condition known as Long COVID – when the impact of an infection is still being experienced months after the fact.
Those who have or had Long COVID, and supporters of loved ones with it, were among those on hand.
Comments closedOttawa Public Health has begun monitoring wastewater for evidence of measles in the city as the highly infectious disease continues to surge throughout Ontario.
That makes Ottawa one of the only communities in the province and across Canada using wastewater as a possible early warning signal for measles. Ottawa Public Health says the tool is promising for detecting measles, but the research is limited and “many unknowns remain”.
There have been no cases in Ottawa so far this year but Dr. Gregory Rose, who is director of infection prevention and control at Queensway Carleton Hospital, warns that it is only a matter of time.
Comments closedAs Canada deals with its largest measles outbreak in more than a decade, health experts say a COVID-era tool could help tame the spread.
Wastewater surveillance, which involves testing sewage samples for viral pathogens, became essential during the pandemic. The data helped overwhelmed health officials map out COVID-19’s path and better predict the trajectory of cases.
At the time, it was praised as a critical public health tool that could serve as a warning system to keep Canadians safe from future harmful infections. And as the current measles outbreak surpasses 500 cases in Canada, experts say this is the moment where leaning into regional wastewater surveillance would be most helpful.
Comments closedThere’s been another sharp increase in Ontario measles cases as the province begins to release weekly reports on the infectious disease.
Public Health Ontario is reporting 470 measles cases since an outbreak began in October. That’s an increase of 120 cases since March 14.
The spread resulted in 34 hospitalizations, including two people who needed intensive care. Most of those hospitalized were unvaccinated kids, including one of the intensive care patients.
The outbreak expansion adds to the growing concern of rising measles cases in different parts of the country, including in Quebec where there are 40 cases and Alberta where there are 13, according to the latest data.
Comments closedDate: Saturday, March 15, 2025
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Where: Ottawa City Hall (meet at the entrance, Laurier Avenue side)
Join us for a walk on International Long COVID Awareness Day, Saturday, March 15, 2025 at 7 pm. The route is wheelchair-accessible.
Comments closedResearchers at McMaster University have started a phase-2 clinical trial on a next-generation, inhaled COVID-19 vaccine.
The AeroVax study, supported by $8M in funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), will test needle-free vaccines developed to provide protection from SARS-CoV-2.
Led by Fiona Smaill and Zhou Xing, members of the Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research (IIDR) at McMaster, the multi-centre trial will evaluate the new vaccine in a broad study group, while also confirming safety.
Comments closedThis is a corrected story. A previous version from The Canadian Press erroneously reported that there were 84 new measles cases reported in Ontario over the last two weeks when in fact there were 78.
Ontario is reporting 78 new measles cases over the last two weeks, nearly doubling the province’s total count since an outbreak started in the autumn.
Comments closedThe City of Ottawa will be marking five years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic with a flag-lowering in March.
The World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic on March 11, 2020, triggering a wave of public health measures and restrictions on populations in an attempt to stop the spread of the deadly virus.
More than 1,200 residents of Ottawa have died from COVID-19 according to public health statistics.
Comments closedThe Grand Erie Public Health Unit is investigating four new cases of measles.
In a news release on Thursday, the health unit said the latest cases were identified in Norfolk County and Brant County.
Two of the recently ill people are recovering in hospital while the other two are at home.
Thursday’s update brings the total number of confirmed illnesses to 57, nine of which have occurred among adults and 48 within children.
Comments closedThe City of Hamilton says it is investigating a confirmed case of measles.
Hamilton Public Health (HPH) says the confirmed case is tied to a Hamilton area child and they are investigating several local exposures.
Comments closedAnother 11 cases of measles have been confirmed by Grand Erie Public Health, bringing the total cases to 48 in the Brantford/Brant, Haldimand/Norfolk area.
One person is recovering in hospital, according to a news release, and the health unit is busy trying to contact those who may have been exposed to that person but the infection source is “unknown at this time.”
The cases involve 42 children and six adults. There are another 19 cases known in the Southwestern Public Health area.
A spokesperson for the Grand Erie health agency said all but one of the cases is from the Haldimand-Norfolk area, with just one case in Brantford-Brant.
Comments closedComments closedWhile international travel was the initial source of these outbreaks, all the people with recent measles infections were exposed to the virus in Canada.
The majority of measles cases reported in Canada occur among unvaccinated people, many of whom are children and include infants under the age of one who are more vulnerable and have not yet had the opportunity to be vaccinated… that is why we need to remain vigilant and I recommend that we keep up-to-date with the recommended vaccinations.
Public health officials said they are now dealing with a measles outbreak in southwestern Ontario, with 19 confirmed cases as of Jan. 29.
Southwestern Public Health, which covers Oxford County, Elgin County and the City of St. Thomas, is reporting three cases of the highly contagious disease in children.
The remaining 16 infections are with Grand Erie Public Health, which serves the City of Brantford, Brant County, Haldimand County and Norfolk County. In an update Friday, officials said thirteen children and three adults have measles.
Comments closedConfirmed cases of measles have now been reported at two public health units in southern Ontario.
Grand Erie Public Health said nine people have the highly contagious virus.
Of those, three are children and the remaining six are adults.
Only one of those cases is in Brantford-Brant, while the other eight are in Haldimand County and Norfolk County.
Southwestern Public Health, which covers Oxford County, Elgin County and St. Thomas, confirmed Thursday they have one active case. Officials believe it is likely connected to those reported by Grand Erie Public Health.
Comments closedThe feasibility of bringing back wastewater surveillance in Hamilton to detect emerging infectious disease is being examined by city staff.
“One of the benefits of wastewater sampling is that it’s a really cost-effective tool for public health concerns,” said Dr. Robin Lennox, a Hamilton family physician. “It can be tailored to identify specific pathogens of concern based on what a local community actually identifies as their priorities, so it can look at anything from respiratory viruses to sexually transmitted infections.”
Comments closedThe 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.
Comments closedComments closedIt 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.
Just 70 per cent of seven year olds in Ontario were fully vaccinated against measles last year, according to Public Health Ontario.
That represents a steep drop in vaccination coverage compared to before the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the data. There have been similar declines for other routine childhood vaccines as well.
A decade ago, during the 2013-14 school year, 94 per cent of seven year olds in Ontario were fully immunized against measles. That number has steadily declined since then. Herd immunity for measles, which is among the most contagious infections in the world, is between 90 and 95 per cent.
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