The CSA Group — a not-for-profit standards organization — released for review a new draft standard on the “Selection, Use, and Care of Respirators” (CSA Z94.4:25) for workplaces, specifically including health care. This new standard is designed to ensure much better protection for health-care workers and for everyone seeking health care.
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Topic: measlesView all posts for the topic: measles
Canada officially loses its measles elimination status
Canada has been stripped of its measles elimination status after failing to interrupt transmission within one year of an outbreak that continues to spread in parts of the country.
The Public Health Agency of Canada said Monday it was notified by The Pan American Health Organization, a regional arm of the World Health Organization, that Canada lost its designation – an accomplishment it held for 27 years.
“While transmission has slowed recently, the outbreak has persisted for over 12 months, primarily within under-vaccinated communities,” the statement said.
Comments closedThe Pan American Health Organization has informed the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) that Canada no longer has the status of a country that has eliminated measles, due to an outbreak that has been ongoing for more than one year.
This status indicates that there is no continuous transmission of the disease for 12 months or more in a given geographical area.
“Despite considerable efforts by Canada, the country has lost its status. Measles is now considered to be endemic in this country,” PAHO director Dr. Jason Barbosa told a news conference.
Comments closedTopic: AlbertaView all posts for the topic: Alberta
CUPE Alberta launches online campaign against province’s COVID-19 vaccine fee
The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Alberta has launched an online campaign against the province’s $100 fee for Albertans who want to get a COVID-19 vaccination.
A new website calls on the province to “axe the vax tax.”
The website calls the fee unfair, reckless and dangerous, and allows Albertans to write a letter to Premier Danielle Smith, Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi and their local MLAs protesting the province’s decision to charge Albertans $100 for a COVID vaccine this year.
Comments closedTopic: Northwest TerritoriesView all posts for the topic: Northwest Territories
Fresh Covid-19 vaccine supply arrives in NWT after earlier shipment spoiled
The NWT’s health authority says a new shipment of Covid-19 vaccines has arrived in the territory after an earlier consignment spoiled.
There had been a shortage of the vaccine in recent days after the previous supply’s cold chain – the mechanism by which vaccines are kept refrigerated prior to use – broke down.
On Friday morning, the health authority said more supplies had arrived and anyone can now request a Covid-19 vaccine at Yellowknife’s Centre Square Mall clinic.
Comments closedTopic: long COVIDView all posts for the topic: long COVID
Women are three times more likely than men to get severe long COVID: Here’s why
Research published today in Cell Reports Medicine reveals key biological differences that may explain why women with long COVID — especially those who develop chronic fatigue syndrome — tend to experience more severe and persistent symptoms than men do.
Post COVID-19 condition, or long COVID, is diagnosed when neurological, respiratory or gastrointestinal symptoms develop or continue three months or more after an acute SARS-CoV-2 infection.
The likelihood of developing long COVID is three times higher for women than men, but until now the underlying biological mechanisms driving this disparity have remained unknown.
Comments closedTopic: British ColumbiaView all posts for the topic: British Columbia
18 poultry farms in B.C. dealing with avian flu outbreak
There are now 18 poultry farms in B.C. that are dealing with outbreaks of avian flu.
This includes more than a dozen large poultry farms in Chilliwack, Abbotsford and Langley.
Shawn Hall, director of the B.C. Poultry Industry Emergency Operations Centre, told Global News that it is a concerning time for poultry farmers in the province.
Comments closedTopic: Ottawa-GatineauView all posts for the topic: Ottawa-Gatineau
Lack of funding is hobbling Ottawa Public Health: officials
Funding gaps are already making it difficult for Ottawa Public Health to meet growing community needs and invest in health-care prevention, but a public health emergency would make the situation worse, OPH is warning.
Among other things, OPH is unable to comply with Ontario Public Health standards when it comes to inspections and some infectious disease cases and contact management for “lower impact diseases of public health significance.”
Comments closedTopic: AlbertaView all posts for the topic: Alberta
Pharmacists decry ‘hurdles’ facing Albertans who want a COVID vaccine
Changes to the Alberta government’s COVID vaccination plan this year mean many Albertans are facing long waitlists and a hefty bill to get their shot.
With the government-run program only offered through public health clinics and many of those clinics experiencing long waits, some Albertans are choosing instead to go to their local pharmacist to get immunized — as they have done in previous years.
Comments closedTopic: vaccinesView all posts for the topic: vaccines
Risk of rare heart complications in children higher after COVID-19 infection than after vaccination
Children and young people faced long-lasting and higher risks of rare heart and inflammatory complications after COVID-19 infection, compared to before or without an infection, according to new research. Meanwhile COVID-19 vaccination was only linked to a short-term higher risk of myocarditis and pericarditis.
The study is the largest of its kind in this population, and is published today in The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health. It was led by scientists at the Universities of Cambridge and Edinburgh, and University College London, with support from the British Heart Foundation (BHF) Data Science Centre at Health Data Research UK.
Comments closedTopic: long COVIDView all posts for the topic: long COVID
COVID vaccination cuts risk of long-term symptoms in teens by over a third, data suggest
The risk of long COVID was 36% lower in adolescents vaccinated within 6 months before their first infection than in their unvaccinated peers, suggests an analysis of US Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery (RECOVER) trial data published late last week in Vaccine.
The study, led by Massachusetts General Hospital researchers, involved 724 adolescents aged 12 to 17 years who were vaccinated against COVID-19 within the previous 6 months and 507 unvaccinated youth matched on sex, symptom onset, and enrollment date.
Comments closedTopic: long COVIDView all posts for the topic: long COVID
CBC’s Flagship Program Platforms “Quackery” for Long COVID
On October 26th, CBC’s flagship program The National aired an interview featuring former CBC host Gill Deacon discussing her recovery from Long COVID using a brain retraining program and promoting her upcoming book.
Although host Ian Hanomansing clarified on air that Deacon doesn’t endorse the brain retraining therapy, the segment still provided national coverage for an unproven therapy. The National failed to mention that there’s no strong evidence CBT, and related brain retraining programs, are effective for Long COVID. The specific brain retraining course Deacon used to recover, according to her Substack, the Lightning Process, has been accused of exploiting people with Long COVID.
At best, this suggests The National did not conduct sufficient background research that would have flagged the problematic nature of the Lightning Process. At worst, the program may have been aware of the concerns surrounding the Lightning Process but chose not to mention it.
Comments closedTopic: pandemic responseView all posts for the topic: pandemic response
This Physicist Says We Don’t Take COVID Seriously Enough
If you think the COVID pandemic is done and ever-evolving variants pose no significant threat, consider these two realities.
The first is a recent U.S. study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. It tracked 150 million workers and their absences in the workplace in the United States since the end of the so-called public health emergency in 2023.
Its central conclusion: “Health-related absences from work continued to track COVID-19 circulation and were 12.9 per cent higher in the post-pandemic period compared with before the pandemic (140,000 monthly absences).” Absences were highest in occupations with the greatest exposure to the public.
Comments closedTopic: Newfoundland and LabradorView all posts for the topic: Newfoundland and Labrador
COVID-19 cases, vaccine campaigns helped prompt mask mandate’s return, doctor says
A temporary mask mandate is coming back to Newfoundland and Labrador’s hospitals and long-term care facilities, and one doctor says the driving force is two-fold — a rise in COVID-19 cases and the availability of vaccines.
On Wednesday, Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services announced it was temporarily bringing back mandatory masking in clinical settings effective Monday. The release cited an increase in infectious diseases circulating.
“The timing of the mask requirement was a little bit deliberate to coincide with the timing of the COVID-19 and influenza vaccine campaigns,” Dr. Natalie Bridger, an infectious disease specialist, told CBC Radio’s The St. John’s Morning Show.
Comments closedTopic: cardiovascular diseaseView all posts for the topic: cardiovascular disease
Covid and Flu Can Triple Your Risk of Heart Attack
The risk of a heart attack triples within the first few weeks after a Covid-19 infection, the study suggested, and quadruples in the month after a flu infection. The study, published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Heart Association, was a large review and analysis of existing research.
“It endorses a general idea that we’ve been thinking about and talking about for the past several years — that infections are generally not benign,” said Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly, a senior clinical epidemiologist at Washington University in St. Louis, who was not involved in the study.
Comments closedTopic: long COVIDView all posts for the topic: long COVID
Video | Long COVID is underdiagnosed, researchers say, and there’s work to be done to change that
St. John’s hosted the 2025 Canadian Symposium on Long COVID earlier this month, a gathering of top researchers, clinicians, and people living with long COVID. As the CBC’s Adam Walsh reports, those on the symposium floor say more needs to be done to bring awareness to the condition as it continues to impact people of all ages.
Comments closedTopic: vaccinesView all posts for the topic: vaccines
Pharmacists urge vaccination as fewer than half of Canadians plan to get their flu or COVID-19 shots this fall
October 28, 2025 (Ottawa): As Canada enters another respiratory virus season, pharmacists are urging Canadians to protect themselves and their communities as new polling shows vaccination intentions remain low.
According to a new national survey conducted by Abacus Data for the Canadian Pharmacists Association (CPhA), 43% of Canadians plan to get their seasonal flu shot, and 29% intend to receive a COVID-19 vaccine this fall. Most concerning, nearly 4 in 10 Canadians (39%) say they don’t plan to get either vaccine.
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