Health units want summer camps to proactively monitor for measles
If an infection is reported at a camp in Waterloo Region, the health unit said any 'children or staff who are not fully protected with two documented doses' of the measles vaccine will be sent home. The also won't be allowed to return for at least 21 days after any potential exposure, unless they provide proof of vaccination against the virus.
The latest epidemiological summary from Public Health Ontario, updated on June 19, showed 110 measles infections were reported by Region of Waterloo Public Health between Oct. 18, 2024 and June 17, 2024. Over the last week, the total number of cases increased by 21. It is important to note, there may be a discrepancy between the region's total and the data shared by Public Health Ontario due to a lag in the reporting system and revised classification criteria.
Huron Perth Public Health
Huron Perth Public Health, meanwhile, only asked that camp providers prioritize the identification of measles symptoms, follow proper protocols and communicate with parents about the importance of measles. They also stressed 'understanding reporting requirements and procedures for managing cases and contacts.'
'Vaccination is important for camp participants as it is the best way to prevent the infection,' Dr. Miriam Klassen, the medical officer of health for Huron Perth, said in a media release. 'In addition, camp and program organizers must be prepared to respond effectively to potential measles cases to protect the community's health.'
The latest epidemiological summary from Public Health Ontario showed 249 measles infections reported by Huron Perth Public Health between Oct. 18 and June 17, an increase of 14 in the last week. Again, the data may not line up with the local health unit's case counts due to reporting delays and changing classification.
While the outbreak seems to have slowed down, public health officials said it is still important to take precautions.
What to know about measles
Measles is a highly contagious virus. The disease can spread through the air when an infected person coughs, sneezes or breathes. Even brief exposure to measles can result in illness.
Symptoms include a fever, runny nose, cough, red watery eyes, small white spots inside the mouth and a red blotchy rash. Other signs of measles include diarrhea, ear infections and pneumonia. In severe cases, measles can cause brain inflammation and death.
It usually takes between seven and 21 days for symptoms to show up.
Anyone who believes they may have been exposed to measles is asked to stay at home and avoid contact with others. If medical treatment is needed, people are urged to contact their health provider ahead of time to prevent the illness from spreading to other patients.
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CBC
2 hours ago
- CBC
Heart attack patient waits 13 hours in Moncton Hospital ER
Jonah Imeson says he'd heard plenty of stories about people waiting for hours in New Brunswick's emergency rooms and even dying before being seen by a physician, but then he had his own scare and he's still shaken. The 35-year-old graphic designer, with Type 2 diabetes, said he waited 13 hours at the Moncton Hospital ER with chest discomfort, arm pain, nausea, high blood pressure and a sensation like heartburn before he was seen by a doctor, who told him he'd likely had a heart attack and could have died. Imeson's story puts a face to the untold number of patients in New Brunswick who wait far too long in a hospital system that has openly declared a critical state of over-capacity. And although the Moncton Hospital has been left out of a new protocol demanding some hospital patients be fast-tracked into nursing homes — to help free up beds, including those in ERs — Horizon's dashboard paints a troubling picture. It shows wait times in the Moncton Hospital ER, from triage to assessment by a physician, reached 400 minutes (6.6 hours) in June — the highest since April 2022 and well above the national target of 30. That makes Imeson a remarkable outlier in a system already under-performing by a significant margin. From 3 p.m. on June 4 until 4 a.m. the next day, he waited in a room so full, he lost his seat a few times after getting up to vomit and when he went to call his mother. "You always hear stories, then it actually happens to you," he said of his ER experience. Time-stamped text messages tell wait-time story Imeson was able to reconstruct it from the text messages he sent home to his wife and to his parents in Oromocto. He didn't ask them to come to the hospital, he said, because he was concerned about his wife, who had to work the next day, and didn't want to trouble his mother or father. The experience began at 1 p.m., when he was scheduled to see his dietitian on the hospital campus. He reported chest discomfort and a numb sensation in his arm. The dietitian took his blood pressure, and when she got a reading of 210/119, she walked him to the ER herself. At the triage station, Imeson reported that his own father had had a heart attack at 49 and that diabetes ran in the family. Imeson was registered shortly after 3 p.m., then sat down to wait. WATCH | Why a Moncton man fears going to the hospital again: "While I was there, I started sweating profusely," he said. "I had to go to the bathroom a few times and vomit." As the hours ticked by, Imeson updated his mother by text: 4:11 p.m."168 over 107 pulse is 95." 5:13 p.m."151 over 92. They gave me some Tylenol" 6:44 p.m."147 over 78 pulse is 76 I just had to run and throw up again." 7:48 p.m. "148/78 pulse is 76. This heartburn feeling is weird." 9:05 p.m."153 over 12 pulse 97 *112" 11:11 p.m. "160 over 94 pulse 90. room's filled" As midnight approached, Imeson thought about leaving the hospital, walking down the street and calling an ambulance. "To see if that might rush me in more," he said. "I guess a part of me never would have done that, but it definitely crossed my mind." His mother texted him encouragement, told him to stay and that a doctor would likely see him soon. Shortly after 4 a.m., Imeson saw a physician and was given an electrocardiogram. It was the first time he heard from a doctor that he might have had a heart attack. More tests ensued. "They did the ultrasound and they had mentioned that it appears the bottom section of my heart was damaged." On June 6, Imeson was sent by ambulance to the heart centre at the Saint John Regional Hospital, where he underwent more examinations. "When I went to Saint John and they did the ink dye test, it became more apparent what the situation was with that blocked artery. So that's why … it appeared damaged, because that artery was blocked." Later that day, an ambulance returned Imeson to the Moncton Hospital, and he was discharged June 8. On Monday, June 16, he returned to work, while taking medication. Once he had his "foot in the door" and could speak to doctors, he said, his care was excellent. Cardiologists say heart attacks need immediate attention CBC News contacted Dr. Zeeshan Ahmed, a cardiologist at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute and an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Ottawa, for a better understanding of what happens when a heart attack occurs. He was not asked to diagnose Imeson or comment on his care. Ahmed said heart attacks are caused by the gradual buildup of plaque in the artery and the sudden rupture of that plaque, which then blocks the artery. "And when that specific artery becomes blocked, the portion of the heart muscle it's supplying will have a lack of blood supply, and as a consequence those muscles will start to die," he said. Ideally, patients presenting with heart attack symptoms would receive an electrocardiogram test within 15 minutes of arrival at the hospital. "Someone presents with chest pain, immediately, an ECG within 10 to 15 minutes, and then the physician has to read it," Ahmed said. An ECG is a simple test, where a lead is attached to the patient's chest and the doctor looks at the electricity the heart generates, which helps a diagnosis. Ahmed said chest pain happens when the artery is partially blocked or blocked completely, and it's important for patients who do feel severe chest pain to get medical attention as soon as possible. "The longer they wait, the heart muscle that is not being supplied by blood will eventually die," he said. "And as it dies, it will start to scar." "I urge people to come to the hospital. Don't sit on the symptoms. Don't delay, especially if there are risk factors like a family history of heart disease, high blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, or a history of smoking." Ahmed said symptoms include a sensation of chest tightness or discomfort, a feeling the pain or tightness is travelling down one arm or both arms or up to the jaw. Patients may also have sudden sweating or shortness of breath. They might feel lightheaded or nauseous. They might also feel pain in their upper stomach. Horizon Health said it could not comment on Imeson's file for privacy reasons, but provided a written statement from Bonnie Matchett, the network's clinical director of emergency and critical care. "We can confirm a high volume of patients were experiencing high acuity medical needs in Horizon's The Moncton Hospital (TMH) Emergency Department (ED) on this date," Matchett wrote. She said Horizon wants a "positive patient experience," and people concerned about the care they've received should communicate with a Horizon patient representative. Imeson said he's not sure he'll go to the patient advocate. He's focused on recovery. He is also reflecting on what he might have done to get seen more quickly — or whether causing any fuss would have been proper. "I just assumed they were doing the best with what they had and I just stuck through to the end," he said. "But I was concerned if I made a scene, would they ask me to leave? And would it even have been fair for me to do that to them they were as busy as they were."
CBC
2 hours ago
- CBC
Emergency departments in N.S. still struggling with closures
On a recent July day at the Digby General Hospital's emergency department, visitors would have been greeted by a sign no one wants to encounter as they reach the front door: the site was closed. It's a sign that's been getting a lot of use lately. Digby, like many rural health-care facilities around Nova Scotia and across Canada, has staffing problems and those problems cause closures. Right now, the site has just one full-time emergency medicine doctor, with the remaining shifts covered by locums — doctors who travel to the community to fill in. According to publicly-available information, the emergency department in Digby was closed for 518 hours in June, 514 hours in May and 383 hours in April. For years, closures have been stubbornly difficult to solve at certain sites, but Nancy Whalley is hoping there could be light at the end of the tunnel for Digby. Whalley, the area's community navigator, said Digby General will welcome two nurse practitioners in the fall who are relocating from the United States and another doctor could be in place by the end of the year, all to bolster the ranks of the emergency department. "It'll be huge," Whalley said during a recent interview. It's the kind of payoff health-care professional recruiters and community navigators around the province hope to achieve as they pursue doctors, nurses and other health-care professionals. Digby is not the only site in Nova Scotia with an emergency department plagued by closures. Roseway Hospital in Shelburne, which has relied entirely on locums for at least the last five years, is consistently one of the emergency departments in the province that struggles the most to remain open each year. The site was closed for 498 hours in June, 631 hours in May and 489 hours in April. The emergency departments at Eastern Memorial Hospital in Canso and Strait Richmond Hospital near Port Hawkesbury also see persistently high closure hours. For years, the provincial government was required by legislation to produce an annual report on emergency department closures, outlining where and when they happened, along with details about community meetings to discuss problem areas. A change in reporting Health Minister Michelle Thompson said earlier this year that the report is no longer useful because of the gap between when it's published and the time it covers, and other information the government and health authority make publicly available. The annual accountability report covered a fiscal year, but was not released until the following December. Thompson's government passed legislation during the winter session at Province House to do away with the requirement to produce and publish the report. Despite that decision, CBC News has been tracking emergency department closures across the province using public notices released each week by Nova Scotia Health. Dr. Rod Wilson, the NDP health critic, said that regardless of whether the government is producing an annual report, people in rural communities know when their emergency department is closed and he's worried closures might be viewed as standard practice by people in some areas. "We shouldn't accept that," he said in an interview. A physician by training who still does some part-time coverage at emergency departments, Wilson said that what communities need to see is a plan from the government outlining how many hours people should expect sites to be open and how much staff is required to meet those expectations. The government should also report on how it does meeting such benchmarks, he said. "If there's a plan, we're not aware of it," said Wilson. Despite the ongoing struggles to keep some sites open, a senior official with Nova Scotia Health said there are no considerations to downgrade any of the sites to a different service model. Tanya Penney said there are geographic considerations for rural emergency departments because of the distance from them to the nearest regional hospital. "Rural emergency departments are absolutely vital and staffing shortages sometimes, unfortunately, make it difficult to keep them open," she said in a recent interview. "But we're super focused on recruiting and retaining and supporting health-care workers needed to provide care in those areas." As recruitment efforts continue, Penney pointed to other initiatives that have been rolled out to help get people access to care closer to home even when an emergency department is closed. That includes primary care clinics at pharmacies, mobile care clinics and virtual urgent care. Easing doctors' workloads The latter, now available at more than 20 sites around the province, operates even when an emergency department is closed. Qualifying patients see a nurse in person and have access to a doctor virtually. Blood work and X-rays can be ordered, prescriptions written and follow-up care is provided. The sites normally operate seven days a week, 12 hours a day. Whalley said having services like that in place can be helpful for people considering working in Digby because it shows them that the responsibility to provide care for the community won't rest entirely on their shoulders. "I think that's huge and I think that that is the way it's going now everywhere," she said. "[Doctors are] getting used to having those other accesses to care so that it's not falling all on them."
CBC
3 hours ago
- CBC
Local Thunder Bay organizations feeling impact of global cuts to HIV funding
Researchers and support workers who focus on HIV prevention and education in Thunder Bay are worried about the potential consequences here in Canada as cuts, particularly from the US, take hold. A majority of the major cuts to funding have come from the US government severing its ties with UNAIDS in February. The move paused funding for the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS relief (PEPFAR), a program responsible for roughly seventy percent of financing for HIV research and support services worldwide since 2003. Pauline Sameshima is a member of Lakehead University's faculty of education, and a member of the international HIV Obstruction by Programmed Epigenetics (HOPE) Collaboratory, whose research focuses on finding a cure for HIV. HOPE brings in researchers from around the world to develop a strategy of blocking HIV reactivation, while locking it in in a dormant state and making it permanently defective through gene editing therapies and techniques. The research program received a five-year, $26.5 million grant from the U.S. National Institutes of Health in 2021. Funding cuts have Sameshima worried if funding for HOPE will continue into the fifth year of the grant. The Lakehead University professor is a part of the collaboratory's community engagement team. "I lead the CARE program, which is community arts, integrated research and education portion and the goal is to advance HIV cure research through community engagement," Sameshima said, noting that much of her work involves engaging with 2SLGBTQ+ and minority groups. However, given the U.S. government's recent cuts toward universities over their Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) polices, Sameshima says that funding for the community engagement team on the HOPE collaboratory has been cancelled. "All community engagement work has been cut because it's all to do with EDI connections," Sameshima said. "And LGBTQ groups are resulting as one of the largest trans populations that have been part of HIV research." For local support workers, community engagement research continues to inform their own approaches to ensuring people of all backgrounds have equitable access to care specific to their needs. Global decisions on a local level "That community engagement part is extremely important because evidence or research in a lab, standalone, doesn't really address the gaps that we're seeing in equity to access to care and all of those things," said Kandace Belanger, who manages Thunder Bay District Health Unit (TBDHU)'s street outreach, harm reduction and sexual health programs. Belanger knows first-hand how important the knowledge is of up-to-date knowledge of up-to-date HIV medication strategies and medications. In 2019, TBDHU declared an HIV outbreak, after the region reported eight new cases within the first half of the year. "Our outbreak response really focused on efforts to increase access to prevention. That includes harm reduction and things like condoms and injection supplies, along with the education and information that helps support that use," Belanger said. Her team works closely with those diagnosed with HIV to provide support testing and referrals to treatment providers. Growing cases of HIV are already a concern in Canada, with 2024 seeing a 35% increase in new HIV cases compared to the year before. Compared to its G7 counterparts, the country ranks lowest in preventing the spread of new HIV infections. Canada has, however, stepped up efforts as of late to increase HIV research and support funding. In 2022, the country increased its contributions to the Global Fund to fight AIDS by 30 percent, pledging $1.21 billion between 2023 and 2025. Domestically, the government invested $99.5 million over the past year in funding to address sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections, according to a statement from Health Canada. Canada is also steadily working toward UNAIDS's 95-95-95 target. The target means that 95 percent of HIV patients know they have the disease, are diagnosed with antiretroviral treatment, and are able to achieve viral suppression — factors which could end AIDS as an epidemic. By 2022, 89 percent of people living with HIV had been diagnosed and only 85% were on treatment, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada. Still, Belanger said she is worried that if Canada does not step up further in its funding, both domestically and internationally, we could see these percentages start to decline, amounting to a greater strain on our healthcare system. Sameshima said in order for countries like Canada to be able to meet the 95-95-95 threshold, more funding needs to be put forward for community engagement work in particular, as research teams like the HOPE collaboratory continue to face cuts when it comes to community-based research. The engagement part is really crucial to HIV research because a lot of the reason why we've not been able to reach a threshold is there needs to be funding to get there, Sameshima said. "All of this progress to reach the 95 [percent threshold] is about education, helping people to get access so they can know their status, access antiretroviral treatment and then also know if they are virally suppressed." When it comes to the global picture, the 2025 UNAIDS report reported that the number of new cases of HIV discovered in 2024 was 40 percent lower than in 2010. UNAIDS estimates that continued cuts to PEPFAR could mean an additional four million AIDS-related deaths and at least six million new HIV infections globally by 2030. The stark decrease in international funding for HIV research cannot be attributed to the U.S. alone, as the report also noted there was a 77 percent decrease in funding from bilateral donors, not including the United States, since 2010.
