Health

TorontoPublic Health Ontario has logged a total of 2,223 measles cases since outbreak began last October.Public Health Ontario has logged a total of 2,223 measles cases since outbreak began last OctoberNicole Ireland · The Canadian Press · Posted: Jul 03, 2025 1:19 PM EDT | Last Updated: 1 hour agoA photo shows a person with a measles rash. (Phichet Chaiyabin/Shutterstock)A Public Health Ontario report released Thursday suggests a continuing downward trend in new measles cases.The health agency is reporting 12 new cases in the province, down from 33 new cases last week and 96 the week before that.Two more people were infected with the highly contagious disease in a northern region that includes Sault Ste. Marie and surrounding areas.That region had been showing the biggest increase in c...

There were more opioid-related deaths in March than in any previous month on record in the Edmonton zone, according to the latest government data. Two experts say more should have been done in the lead-up to the spike in fatalities.Eighty-seven people died of opioid drug poisoning in March, making that the highest amount of opioid-related deaths in Alberta's capital region since authorities began tracking it publicly in 2016."It's very horrific, frankly, to see such a big spike in deaths in Edmonton," said Elaine Hyshka, Canada Research Chair in Health Systems Innovation at the University of Alberta School of Public Health. "We're almost 10 years into this crisis. And so the fact that the numbers here are getting a lot higher, it's really troubling."Since August 2023, the number of fatal o...

Janice MacMillan recalls driving home from work trying to breathe through a flare-up of excruciating chest pain, all while contemplating this heavy question: "What's the point of living if this is my life?"MacMillan has suffered from chronic pain for more than 45 years. She once felt hopeless, alone and invalidated — until she found a new purpose.The 62-year-old woman has made it her life's mission to help people with chronic pain in a province where people wait years to see specialists and where pain clinics are understaffed."I was meant to be here and I'm fighting hard so that every person on the South Shore, even Nova Scotia, not be left behind," said MacMillan, who is originally from Ontario but moved to Liverpool, N.S., in 2021.MacMillan's experience is not unique. More than 20 per ce...

When Brittany Ramsey started experiencing "awful stomach episodes" she thought it must've been side effects of the medication she was taking to manage her diabetes.But after a particularly gruelling episode where she just could not stop vomiting — not being keep down even small sips of water — that landed her in hospital, Ramsey knew something felt different about what she was experiencing."From then, the episodes got worse and worse, and closer together," said Ramsey, a 35-year-old operations trainer at a financial firm in Cincinnati, Ohio. "From 2021 to 2024 … three years, I was hospitalized 29 times. Five ambulance trips – one actually had to pick me up on the side of the road because I couldn't make it to the hospital."After years of undergoing, at times, invasive testing procedures to...

Alberta's decision to reduce access to publicly funded COVID-19 vaccines so far appears to set the province on a different course than many other Canadian jurisdictions.Most Albertans will no longer be eligible for a free COVID-19 shot this fall.The provincial government recently announced plans to limit coverage to specific high-risk groups, including Albertans living in care homes and group settings, those receiving home care, people on social programs such as AISH, and immunocompromised individuals.All other seniors, pregnant Albertans and health care workers are not included, despite strong recommendations by the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) that they should be vaccinated. NACI also recommends that everyone else may receive an annual dose.The Alberta government ha...

Applications for B.C.'s publicly funded in-vitro fertilization (IVF) program open on Wednesday.The program will pay for one round of IVF per person for patients covered by the province's Medical Services Plan (MSP). A patient's fertility doctor will have to apply on their behalf.In-vitro fertilization is a medical procedure where an egg is fertilized by sperm outside of the body before being placed in a womb. It is often used by people facing infertility due to age or reproductive problems.The funding will provide up to $19,000 per patient.An eligibility requirement for the funding is that a patient be aged 18 through 41. The province has said that an exception will be made for those who turn 42 between April 1 and July 2, 2025. WATCH | IVF program faces delay in B.C.: B.C. in-vitro fertil...

The World Health Organization is pushing countries to raise the prices of sugary drinks, alcohol and tobacco by 50 per cent over the next 10 years through taxation, its strongest backing yet for taxes to help tackle chronic public health problems. The United Nations health agency said the move would help cut consumption of the products, which contribute to diseases like diabetes and some cancers, as well as raising money at a time when development aid is shrinking and public debt rising. "Health taxes are one of the most efficient tools we have," said Jeremy Farrar, WHO assistant-director general of health promotion and disease prevention and control. "It's time to act." The WHO launched the push, which it is called "3 by 35" at the UN Finance for Development conference in Seville, Spain. ...

A woman who was excited to celebrate with her family at a graduation event for Indigenous women on Thursday says it's hard to look at her college certificate after the experience was tainted by comments Manitoba's accessibility minister made about sharing the stage with a sign-language interpreter.Deborah Owczar, who is deaf, said the ASL interpreter was removed from the stage after Minister Nahanni Fontaine's speech, depriving her and her daughter access to participation during the first annual Mino'Ayaawag Ikwewag Celebration of Indigenous Women Graduates held in downtown Winnipeg on Thursday. She said she was looking forward to getting dressed up with her daughter and celebrating with other Indigenous high school, college and university grads.Owczar, who is Métis, had just earned a chil...

Leaning into a small microphone in a Quebec City studio, Dr. Alec Cooper takes a breath and reads out part of the often-quoted "To be, or not to be" soliloquy from Shakespeare's Hamlet."It's pretty dramatic," said Cooper, backing away from the microphone and letting out a laugh."I just realized, my God, it really is talking about death."It's a subject Cooper says he's been forced to think about over the past year and a half after he was diagnosed with ALS, a terminal motor neuron disease. He was initially given an average life expectancy of two to five years. The family doctor, originally from Victoria, had 1,800 patients before announcing his snap retirement last year.Staying busy renovating his house to become wheelchair accessible, Cooper has also been spending more time in front of a m...

Health Canada's new front-of-package nutrition warning labels are beginning to appear on store shelves six months ahead of the food industry's deadline.First announced in 2022, the black-and-white labels alert shoppers if a product is high in sugar, sodium and/or saturated fat, which the federal department says can lead to increased health risks like stroke, obesity, heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and some types of cancers."I think these can be a really great starting point for people that are looking to use labels as nutrition information sources. But I do think that there are some limitations," said Brittany Brown, a dietitian based in Dartmouth, N.S."... Right now, it's just going to be kind of functioning as a nutrition warning label, so it's going to give consumer...