Health

An inquest gets underway today for seven men who died in drug overdoses while at Maplehurst Correctional Complex in Milton, Ont., between June 2017 and October 2019.Five of the seven were originally from Waterloo region or Guelph.The following died either at Maplehurst or after transfer to Halton Healthcare, with their dates of death included: Wesley Da Silva, 40, of Cambridge, Oct. 4, 2019. Cory Hemstead, 31, of Brampton, June 19, 2029. Shawn Irvine, 38, of Kitchener, Oct. 29, 2018. Derek Johne, 28, of Magnetawan, June 20, 2017. Curtis McGowan, 32, of Guelph, Oct. 6, 2017. Peter Ormond, 38, of Kitchener, Sept. 25, 2017. Rattanbir Sidhu, 23, of Cambridge, May 7, 2019. In Ontario, inquests into deaths while in custody are mandatory under the Coroners Act. Maplehurst Correctio...

Northern Health officials have identified multiple confirmed cases of measles in the small northeast B.C. community of Wonowon since late May.It's also warning of an exposure at Fort St. John Hospital earlier this month.Wonowon is located around 90 kilometres northwest of Fort St. John, and is the site of the Halfway River First Nation reserve. The nation has a registered population of just under 300 people, and the Wonowon School says its student population comprises just under 60 kids.Members of the public have been warned to check for symptoms of the disease, which has been seeing a resurgence in Canada — particularly in Ontario, where officials have counted 2,046 confirmed and probable cases of measles as of May 31, and in Alberta.Northern Health says that it has found multiple lab-con...

Advocates and researchers say Ontario is far behind when it comes to protecting the growing number of drug users in the province who are choosing to inhale opioids rather than inject them. "We know what we need to help support people who smoke their drugs — and we've been really, really behind the curve on it," said Gillian Kolla, an assistant professor of medicine at Memorial University, who studies drug use across Canada. Data shared with CBC Toronto last week from the Ontario Office of the Chief Coroner shows that in 2024, just four per cent of deadly opioid overdoses are thought to have been caused by injection alone — down from 20 per cent in 2018. That's the opposite trajectory of the statistics for inhalation alone, which are thought to be responsible for 40 per cent of last year's ...

Doctors and scientists worry Alberta's measles outbreaks could signal the start of a new era when other dangerous infectious diseases of the past could re-emerge and pose new health threats.The province is battling its worst wave of measles cases in nearly half a century and there is no end in sight.The virus was declared eliminated in Canada in 1998. But vaccination rates have declined in Alberta, and around the country in recent years. "To some extent measles is the canary in the coalmine," said Dr. Cora Constantinescu, a pediatric infectious diseases specialist at Alberta Children's Hospital in Calgary.As of Friday, a total of 879 measles cases had been reported in the province since the outbreaks began in March."When the immunization rates go down and you have a lot of unprotected peop...

Jeewa Liske was four months pregnant in August 2023 when she had to flee wildfire smoke in Yellowknife and make a difficult 20-hour drive to safety."I was wanting to leave just 'cause it was so smoky and it was so hard to breathe," Liske, now 23, recalled of the day the city issued an evacuation order. She said she was barely able to see the sides of the road as she and three friends drove to Edmonton. When they arrived, Liske was torn between staying to be close to family in nearby Leduc, or living with her mother-in-law in Lkwungen territory on Vancouver Island. After about five days in Alberta, she flew to Victoria. Her anxiety was compounded by being separated from her spouse, a crew boss working to fight the fires in the Northwest Territories.Leaving her home meant she also struggled ...

The Dose25:38How do cosmetics affect my skin health?Read the label on the average cosmetics product in your local drug store, and you'll come across a variety of promises. A foundation brand may claim to be able to cover up any and all blemishes, while some skin creams go so far as to suggest they can make you look 10 years younger. Belief in those promises is likely why Canadians spent almost $9 billion US on cosmetics in 2024, contributing to the global cosmetics industry's roughly $650 billion in revenue.It's also why Hailey Bieber recently sold her Rhode brand for $1 billion. Still, most of us know that the average anti-wrinkle cream won't actually turn back the clock, but it's not always clear how much cosmetics actually influence our skin health. Dermatologists agree that sunscreen, ...

About 44 per cent of men living in Canada die prematurely, according to a new report from the Movember Institute of Men's Health.The report defines premature mortality as deaths in men before age 75. The deaths from cancer, coronary heart disease, accidents, suicide and the opioid crisis include some causes that might have been prevented through vaccinations, lifestyle changes like quitting smoking or avoiding injuries. In 2023, almost 75,000 males died prematurely, according to Statistics Canada. "We're here because too many men are dying too young from largely preventable causes," Catherine Corriveau of Movember Canada said at a news conference on Parliament Hill on Thursday. Suicide was the fourth leading cause of premature death in males after cancer, coronary heart disease and acciden...

Canada's Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam is leaving her position at the end of next week.Tam has been in the role since June 2017, but became a household name in the last five years as she led the country's public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic.Tam says her term ends on June 20, and she doesn't have another job lined up.She is taking a break to think about new opportunities, spend more time with family and get back to some of her passions, including playing music and long-distance running.A pediatric infectious disease physician by training, Tam joined the federal government's public health team around the time measles was eliminated in 1998.She says it's concerning to see the virus return but is confident Canada can stop domestic transmission once again through immun...

Alberta's measles surge is so dramatic, the last time case counts were higher Calgary did not have an NHL team, O Canada was not yet the official national anthem and gasoline would set you back 24 cents a litre.The province reported 29 more cases on Thursday, bringing the total since the outbreaks began in March to 868. That pushes the province past the levels seen during a surge in 1986, when 854 cases were reported.A higher case count hasn't been recorded since 1979."It's a little shocking. The numbers we're looking at now today really haven't been seen in Alberta since the 1970s," said Craig Jenne, a professor in the department of microbiology, immunology and infectious diseases at the University of Calgary."[We're] really going back to an era where the vaccine program really was just g...

Before Justin Gill began working at NorWest Community Health Centres (NWCHC), he thought fentanyl was the most toxic substance impacting drug users in Thunder Bay, Ont.But he was wrong.Using the organization's drug analyzer machine, he found traces of carfentanil — which is 100 times stronger than fentanyl — and nitazenes in the substances people brought in."That was very alarming," he said. "People think they're getting one thing but there's multiple things in their substance that can kill them in very small amounts."The Thunder Bay district continues to have the highest opioid-related death rate in Ontario, at nearly five times the provincial average.Meanwhile, the region's only supervised consumption site — Path 525 — closed at the end of March due to new provincial rules about how clos...