Health

B.C.'s Human Rights Commissioner Kasari Govender says she has found "systemic discrimination" in how health authorities detain vulnerable adults who are at risk of harm.Adults who appear to be abused, neglected, or facing self-neglect and are unable to give consent for care in hospitals or care facilities are sometimes detained under the Adult Guardianship Act (AGA). However, the 134-page report found that seniors, disabled people, and those living unhoused are being disproportionately detained.These detentions, Govender said, often lack transparency, oversight, and legal authority."I have found that a significant number of vulnerable adults are being detained under this act through an opaque process with very little oversight," she said. "While adults are being held for their own safety, ...

Cancer patients in British Columbia will no longer be referred to clinics in Bellingham, Wash., for care, Health Minister Josie Osborne announced Monday.Osborne says the ministry's decision was not a result of the current U.S.-Canada trade war but due to declining participation in the program and shorter wait times for care in B.C."This has always been about delivering more cancer care for people closer to home," she said."The investments we've made in more oncologists, more radiation therapy, therapists, improving hospital facilities, that's what's been able to enable us to reduce those wait times."WATCH | How much does the U.S. cancer treatment plan cost B.C.? The cost of U.S-based cancer treatment for British ColumbiansThe B.C. government is now sharing how much it's costing taxpayers t...

Shaun Lane, president of the Personal Care Home Owners Association of Newfoundland and Labrador, says staff and residents are taken aback by the findings in the recent auditor general's report. (Krissy Holmes/CBC)The president of the Personal Care Home Owners Association says a recent auditor general report on the industry in Newfoundland and Labrador is "somewhat accurate," but also that residents in his homes were "taken aback" by the findings.Last week, Auditor General Denise Hanrahan released a report that revealed details of a death as a result of errors, allegations of sexual and verbal abuse and improperly administered medicine — among other findings — within personal care homes in the province.Shaun Lane, who owns three personal care homes and is the president of Personal Care Home...

Ontario schools are starting to issue suspensions to some of the thousands of students who aren't fully vaccinated, as the spread of measles continues, giving new urgency to calls for the province to digitize its immunization record system.Toronto Public Health says about 10,000 students are not up to date on their vaccinations, and an initial group of 173 students in Grade 11 will be suspended Tuesday.A total of 574 students were sent suspension orders, which will continue to roll out across Toronto high schools until May.TPH says students can avoid suspension and return to school by showing proof of vaccination or completing a valid exemption.Dr. Vinita Dubey, Toronto's associate medical officer of health, expects "compliance will exceed 90 per cent" after all the notices are sent out. C...

Toronto's University Health Network says it has a new plan to recruit the best and brightest medical scientists from around the world, including the United States, where the government is laying off thousands of health researchers.At a news conference Monday morning, UHN executives outlined their "Canada Leads" strategy to recruit 100 of the world's leading early-career health scientists to Canada's largest hospital network, to support Canadian medical research and innovation, and drive economic growth.The Canada Leads program will offer selected scientists a two-year research funding commitment, as well as mentorship from leading entrepreneurs and help from a team dedicated to transitioning scientists to their new home. UHN president and CEO Kevin Smith says the goal of the recruitment ef...

Horizon Health has unveiled what the Holt government is calling the first of 30 promised collaborative care clinics that aim to transform the delivery of primary care in New Brunswick.Horizon's existing clinic on Fredericton's north side will expand this summer to take on 1,600 more patients using a "family health team" model developed by the health authority. It will give patients access to an even broader range of health professionals within the clinic, who will be able to treat more problems and steer more people away from expensive emergency care at the Dr. Everett Chalmers Regional Hospital."If I take care of a patient well in my practice, the chance of them ending up in the emergency department for preventable issues is very, very small," said Dr. Ravneet Comstock, who is helping ove...

A Canadian researcher has won a 2025 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences for discovering the GLP-1 hormone used in diabetes and obesity medications — including Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro — that have changed the lives of millions of people around the world.Dr. Daniel Drucker, an endocrinologist and a clinician-scientist at the University of Toronto and the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute at Sinai Health, shares the $3 million US prize with four colleagues from the United States and Denmark.They were all involved in the development of the now-famous drugs manufactured by Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly. Drucker and three co-winners made discoveries about glucagon-like peptide-1 in their labs. The other recipient of the award, Lotte Bjerre Knudsen, who works for Novo Nordisk, led the way ...

Ontario's measles outbreak has become so big that public health officials in New York state have included the province in a travel advisory that urges residents to get vaccinated before visiting."Measles is only a car ride away!" reads the April 2nd measles travel advisory for all New Yorkers from the New York State Department of Health."Currently, measles outbreaks are happening in parts of the United States and Canada, especially in Ontario, and around the world."The advisory also lists the following countries as having a high number of measles cases: Yemen, Pakistan, India, Thailand, Ethiopia, Romania, Afghanistan, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan and Vietnam."Measles is a highly contagious virus. Around 90 per cent of people who are exposed to a person with measles will become infected if they ar...

There is a window of relief for British Columbia farmers from the devastating waves of avian flu, leaving them to assess the toll of outbreaks spanning more than three years that saw millions of birds culled at hundreds of farms.Farmers and scientists also worry what the next migration of wild birds will bring this year.Some farmers have moved their operations outside British Columbia's Fraser Valley or exited the industry altogether since the highly pathogenic H5N1 avian flu began circulating, said farmer Ray Nickel.Nickel, who operates a farm in Abbotsford in the Fraser Valley, was forced to cull 60,000 chickens in the fall of 2022 due to the disease. He said his flock of about 9,000 turkeys on another farm was also euthanized in 2023.WATCH | B.C. poultry farms face avian flu threat: Avi...

The Dose25:07How do I deal with stress in situations I can’t fully control?Political science professor Julie Simmons is no stranger to stressful current events. Though she's active in discussions around Canada's current federal election campaign, Simmons says it's the U.S. government's unpredictability — including threats to the Canada-U.S. relationship — that have her stress levels especially elevated. "I feel …the humanity is lacking in the statements and the decisions that are made by the United States that have very real implications for people struggling around the world," said Simmons, who teaches at the University of Guelph. She isn't alone in her anxieties. A survey published in late March by Mental Health Research Canada (MHRC) found that 42 per cent of respondents experienced inc...