Health

A Winnipeg-born gynecologist and bestselling author says she's had enough with the United States, but she's also prescribing a stark warning for Canadian voters concerned about the future of their own reproductive health care.Dr. Jen Gunter, whose books include The Vagina Bible and The Menopause Manifesto, has long been an outspoken women's health advocate, working to dispel myths around women's sexual health and bodies, and combat online misinformation.She's lived in the United States for three decades, but now says she's moving back to Canada.While that was always part of the plan, Gunter says her decision was sped up by U.S. President Donald Trump's return to the Oval Office earlier this year."The absolute just gutting of health care, you know — it's day after day [that] we're hearing a...

Outside the Southwestern Public Health (SWPH) building, St. Thomas resident Cemon Aswathi sighed with relief after booking her 17-month-old son Nathan for the second dose of a vaccine that protects against the measles.  "We booked it in advance just to be protected more," said Aswathi. "It's difficult since he's very young and it's very easy to catch, so it's a frightening situation when children are suffering."The region, spanning across St. Thomas and smaller townships and municipalities in Oxford and Elgin counties, has accounted for about 40 per cent of measles infections reported in Ontario over the last six months. Thirty-two new cases were recorded this past week.The current measles outbreak, which began last fall, has been the largest Canada has seen in more than a decade. Health o...

Health officials in Prince Edward Island have confirmed two cases of measles, the province's first reported cases since 2013.In a news release, P.E.I.'s Chief Public Health Office said the two adults who tested positive had travelled together to an area in Canada where outbreaks continue.Neither of the people had been immunized against the virus, and both have since recovered, the CPHO said.Public health nursing is providing contacts of the two people with vaccinations as needed, and contact-tracing is underway. No public exposures have been identified at this time.Symptoms of measles include fever, cough, sore eyes and a red rash that begins on the head and spreads down to the trunk and limbs. Serious complications can occur, such as blindness, viral meningitis or pneumonia — or even deat...

The incurable medical condition that ended the professional hockey career of a first-round Winnipeg Jets draft pick is a disorder that's challenging to diagnose and sometimes difficult to treat, says a Manitoba doctor.Chaz Lucius, who signed a three-year contract with the Jets in 2022 and began his professional career playing with the Manitoba Moose in the 2022-23 season, announced Tuesday he was retiring from professional hockey after recently being diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome.The condition, also known as EDS, affects the body's connective tissue by causing an abnormality in the proteins that hold joints, tissues and organs together."People with EDS got the cheap dollar store glue, and everybody else got the crazy glue" to hold joints together, says Tammy Stadt, who lives with t...

This First Person article is the experience of Scott MacMillan, who lives in Dumfries, N.B. For more information about CBC's First Person stories, please see the FAQ. I watched the plane disappear into the sky, carrying my 15-month-old daughter to a hospital where her life could hopefully be saved. Hours earlier, we were in the emergency room in Fredericton, surrounded by sombre nurses. Doctors were attempting to drill into Rosemary's bone marrow to get fluids into her tiny body. The on-call specialist was hours away. The doctor told us our child was in diabetic ketoacidosis. That meant her pancreas wasn't producing enough insulin and her body was shutting down. This was 2022, so pandemic protocols were broken to let me into the hospital as this might have been goodbye. Rosemary was so str...

A group of Black psychologists is fearful of a rollback to equity, diversity and inclusion as well as truth and reconciliation initiatives within the Canadian Psychological Association (CPA) following proposed changes to the organization's strategic plan, while the association's leadership insists those goals remain foundational.The CPA is Canada's largest association for psychology, with over 7,000 voluntary members and 35 specialized sections, including for Black, Asian, and Indigenous psychology.The organization recently sent a draft proposal for its new strategic plan to members for discussion. In its new plan, the board proposed removing two specific goals relating to equity, diversity and inclusion as well as truth and reconciliation initiatives and making them "foundational elements...

Nova Scotia's health authority issued a tender on Thursday for master planning services as part of the continued redevelopment of the QEII Health Sciences Centre, work that could include the development of a new hospital building.The tender calls for project management and architectural services for further redevelopment of buildings on the campus that includes the Halifax Infirmary and the series of buildings around the Victoria General Hospital.The work would also include, "if deemed required by Nova Scotia Health and the province, the development of an additional QEII site (location yet to be determined)," according to the tender.The initial term of the agreement would be for two years, with the health authority having the ability to extend it for an additional year. Submissions are due...

Ontario is reporting 155 new measles cases over the last week, pushing the province's case count to 816 since an outbreak began in the fall.The number of new cases has increased again after a few weeks of appearing to stabilize in the 100-per-week range, which public health physicians had taken as a sign of potential optimism.Public Health Ontario says there have now been 61 hospitalizations — that's 11 more than last week — including 47 children. Unimmunized kids are the predominant group infected by the outbreak.Most cases are still in Ontario's southwestern public health unit, but they spread to two more public health units this week, including Hamilton and Northeastern, which covers Timmins and Englehart.Dr. Susy Hota, division head for infectious diseases at the University Health Netw...

Canada has a unique chance to become a medical and scientific powerhouse — if it moves quickly to scoop up professionals leaving the United States in the wake of health cuts and layoffs, the head of the Canadian Medical Association says.Dr. Joss Reimer, president of the Canadian Medical Association, says American medical professionals often face two big barriers when trying to emigrate from the U.S. to Canada, as they "may need to go through immigration, or they may need to get their training — if they did some of it in the United States — recognized in Canada."Her organization is urging the federal government to ensure visas are fast-tracked for American physicians interested in moving north and other unnecessary steps in the immigration process "get removed so that we don't miss this win...

Measles case counts in Ontario continue to climb with the bulk of cases concentrated in southwestern Ontario, according to new data released by Public Health Ontario (PHO) on Thursday.Health units that oversee that part of the province account for roughly 87.6 per cent of the cases recorded since the outbreak began this past fall. It's been traced to a Mennonite wedding in New Brunswick, Ontario's chief public health doctor said, and has since spread across the country. The result's been the largest measles outbreak Canada has seen in more than a decade. Public health officials in Ontario said they've now seen a total of 816 people with the measles, the majority in unvaccinated children.The area around St. Thomas and Elgin county has seen the largest number of infections, with 32 new cases...