Health

Newfoundland and Labrador's Health Minister Krista Lynn Howell spoke to reporters on Friday, saying a plan was imminent to satisfy the demands of a group of internal medicine doctors who submitted a joint resignation letter. (Ryan Cooke/CBC)Newfoundland and Labrador's health minister said she wasn't fond of the approach, but she expects a deal is "imminent" with a team of doctors who threatened a mass resignation at St. Clare's Mercy Hospital in St. John's.Krista Lynn Howell told reporters Friday afternoon that her department has been working with the provincial health authority and the medical association to find a solution to the problems with internal medicine at the city's second-largest hospital.The five internists warned of an "impending crisis" following the loss of the medical resi...

There's a national overdose hotline that some Canadians call before they're about to use drugs. But the people dialling in aren't who you might think.Since the National Overdose Response Service (NORS) launched nearly five years ago, it's been reaching drug users who wouldn't typically use consumption and treatment sites. Shame and stigma can force people to use drugs alone, putting them at a greater risk of dying from an overdose."We do know that a lot of people are hidden substance users," said Monty Ghosh, an addictions physician in Alberta and a NORS researcher. "It could be that they're afraid of losing their job, they're afraid that the family might leave them, they're afraid that the children might get taken away from them." Ghosh says that's where the hotline comes in. Monty Ghosh ...

A new research review out of the University of British Columbia (UBC) has found that Indigenous people experience better health outcomes when they speak their traditional languages.Researchers analyzed 262 academic and community-based studies from Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand, and determined 78 per cent of them connected Indigenous language vitality with improved health. Studies found positive outcomes ranged from better physical and mental health, to increased social connections and healing, to greater educational success.One 2007 study out of B.C. revealed that youth suicide rates were down in First Nations communities where larger amounts of people spoke Indigenous languages."Part of the reason why we undertook this literature review in the first place was becaus...

It was like any other day on the farm, but within minutes, the ordinary turned life-changing.Meaka Star's quick recognition of a stroke may have saved her grandmother Marleen Conacher's life.They're sharing their story this June, Stroke Awareness Month, to raise awareness of the signs of stroke and the importance of acting fast."She saved my life, or saved me at least from a life of maybe a wheelchair or not being able to talk, with her fast actions. She saved me and she'll always be my hero," Marleen said.Marleen was spending time with her two granddaughters in July 2021. The plan was simple: dinner, a movie and a relaxing night.Meaka, who was 10 years old at the time, noticed something was off. Her grandmother's voice had disappeared and her face was drooping. Then she collapsed."I calle...

The Trump administration's new vaccine advisers on Thursday endorsed this fall's flu vaccinations for just about every American — but only if they use certain shots free of a preservative that has been safely used in vaccines for decades.   What is normally a routine step in preparing for the upcoming flu season drew intense scrutiny after U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. abruptly fired the influential 17-member Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)and handpicked replacements that include several vaccine skeptics.   The seven-member panel bucked another norm Thursday as it discussed the safety of a preservative used in less than five per cent of U.S. flu vaccinations: It deliberated based only on a presentation from an anti-vaccine group's former leader — without a...

Five doctors at a St. John's hospital have tendered a joint notice of resignation, saying their work environment has become "unsafe for both patient care and provider well-being," CBC Investigates has learned.The doctors make up the internal medicine department at St. Clare's Mercy Hospital — responsible for a wide range of critical services provided for both emergency patients and those admitted to the hospital.The letter says the doctors will not be performing any duties outside their contractual obligations — no evenings or weekends — starting on July 1, until their resignation takes effect on Oct. 1."It has become increasingly clear to them that continuing under the current model would further compromise patient safety and the already fragile well-being of the team," reads the letter, ...

An expert group charged by the World Health Organization to investigate how the COVID-19 pandemic started released its final report on Friday, reaching an unsatisfying conclusion: Scientists still aren't sure how the worst health emergency in a century began.At a news briefing, Marietjie Venter, the group's chair, said that most scientific data supports the hypothesis that the new coronavirus jumped to humans from animals.That was also the conclusion drawn by the first WHO expert group that investigated the pandemic's origins in 2021, when scientists concluded the virus likely spread from bats to humans, via another intermediary animal. At the time, WHO said a lab leak was "extremely unlikely."   Venter said that after more than three years of work, WHO's expert group was unable to get the...

When Kathy Meyers heard she could get money back from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) through the disability tax credit, she was excited — but the prospect of filling out forms alongside her doctor felt like another burden to her already demanding days. Meyers, a Port Coquitlam, B.C., resident, has Crohn's disease. Her condition is severe — even with an ileostomy and the removal of her colon, she frequents the hospital for months at a time, and is on permanent disability as she is unable to work.So when a friend recommended True North Disability Services to handle the disability tax credit (DTC) applications for Meyers and her 14-year-old son, it felt like a perfect fit.Her husband, who is also disabled, plans to file an application on his own, after his doctor refused to work with a DTC a...

The wife of a lung transplant recipient who died in May says her family's attempt to save her husband's life has cost her their family home in Springhill, N.S.Donald Goguen, a Canadian navy veteran, died in May of complications from two lung transplants last year.Not only is Verbena Brenton-Goguen grieving her husband, but she's grappling with the financial fallout of living in Toronto for 15 months while he received treatment."I can't afford to live here," she said of their house in Cumberland County. "I will be selling it. There's no way that I'm going to retire at 60. Absolutely no way."Brenton-Goguen is one of three Nova Scotian families who have spoken to CBC News about the financial strain of accessing the life-saving surgery. While the procedure is covered by the province, all of th...

After decades of progress, childhood vaccination rates have started stalling or falling around the world in recent years, and Canada is not immune to the trend, suggests a new study from The Lancet.The study estimated the coverage of 11 childhood vaccines in 204 countries and territories between 1980 and 2023, analyzing over 1,000 data sources from around the world.It found that although globally there were huge strides made in vaccine coverage for children during that period (vaccine coverage against diseases like measles, polio and pertussis more than doubled), progress started stalling, even before the COVID-19 pandemic.A child receives an oral polio vaccine in Nigeria. Since the 1970s, childhood vaccinations have saved an estimated 154 million children worldwide from dying with prevent...