Health

Toronto Public Health says more patients of a gynecologist linked to potential exposure to blood-borne infections due to improper tool cleaning can now get tested — even if they didn't receive a formal letter from the health agency.That was frustrating for Amanda Malek, a patient of Dr. Esther Park in 2023 who didn't receive any notification from the city and felt she had a lot of unanswered questions.When Malek first heard about the public health investigation online, she reached out directly to TPH. "I called multiple times, I told them I got a pap smear, should I be worried, should I be concerned?" Malek said. "They initially told me no."Toronto Public Health has been sharing more details this week about its investigation into infection risks at Dr. Park's clinic. The agency has also be...

Miranda Penney, a resident of La Scie, N.L., remembers her dad Terry Penney as a smart and funny man. (Submitted by Miranda Penney)The Cure is a CBC News series examining strategies provinces and territories are using to tackle the primary care crisis.Miranda Penney remembers the moment with chilling clarity. She was standing in the emergency room at the Baie Verte Peninsula Health Centre, watching a screen as a doctor miles away pronounced her father, Terry Penney, dead."It's almost cold and dehumanizing to have your loved one there in front of you passed away and you're told that by a doctor on a TV screen," said Penney.Her dad was 63 at the time. She says he was a smart, hard-working man with a sharp sense of humour. Penney says her father didn't have a family doctor, and was struggling...

Scientists are raising the alarm over low measles vaccination rates in parts of B.C. as concern grows over outbreaks in Ontario and Texas.Health officials in Ontario say there have been 350 cases of the virus in the province since late October — with 173 of those infections reported within the last several weeks — and in late February, an unvaccinated Texas child lost their life in the first U.S. measles death since 2015.The measles, mumps and rubella vaccine — which is safe and highly effective at preventing infection and severe cases — is recommended for children between 12 and 15 months old for the first shot, with the second coming between the ages of four and six.However, the Okanagan and Kootenay-Boundary regions of B.C. showed less than two-thirds of seven-year-olds were up to date ...

While a national organization seeks to track cases of forced sterilization of Indigenous peoples across Canada, Inuit women in the North say the practice hasn't ended. Karyn Couperthwaite, who lives in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, N.L., delivered her second son via C-section nine years ago. At the time, she said she asked for tubal ligation – a surgical process that would tie her fallopian tubes and prevent future pregnancies. When her family decided to have a third child, she made an appointment to have the ligation reversed. That's when she said she found out that her tubes hadn't been tied – they'd been removed instead. Her doctor made the discovery while reading notes in her medical file from the surgeon who performed the operation, she said. "He had to give me news that I didn't have my fa...

Confirmed measles cases in the Edmonton region have public health officials issuing a warning about the potential risk of exposure. In a public health advisory issued late Sunday, Alberta Health Services said cases have been confirmed in the Edmonton region, including two instances when the highly contagious disease could have spread to others at local medical facilities.The advisory said people who were at the Stollery Children's Hospital's emergency department between March 14 at 10 p.m. and March 15 at 12:30 a.m. may have been exposed.Anyone who was at the Belle Rive Medicentres Family Health Care Clinic in northeast Edmonton on March 12 between 2:15 p.m. and about 5:15 p.m. is also at risk of exposure, Alberta Health Services cautioned. The advisory is the latest in a string of public ...

Testing wastewater for diseases and viral activity gained prominence during the pandemic, but scientists are concerned that funding for such work could be threatened.Monitoring wastewater for pathogens — and even illicit and prescription drugs — was around for decades before the pandemic, but the method of estimating virus levels gained public attention at the peak of the pandemic when it was unclear how much disease was circulating.The B.C. Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) stepped up its surveillance and now regularly monitors the wastewater from around the province to gauge virus levels — not just for COVID-19, but also for influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).Scientists say they hope Canada continues to fund that work. Ontario ended its COVID-19 wastewater surveillance prog...

When Alberta's United Conservative government contracted out community medical lab testing to a private company in December 2022, it said it would save tens of millions of dollars.Two weeks before that contract with DynaLife Medical Labs was set to take effect, the company told the province it needed additional funding.Less than three months later, DynaLife's owners said the company was insolvent and needed an additional $70 million. They soon asked the province to buy DynaLife, which it ultimately did at a cost of almost $100 million.These revelations come from documents obtained by CBC News through freedom of information requests, including Alberta Health emails and briefing notes prepared for Premier Danielle Smith and health ministers Jason Copping and Adriana LaGrange.The documents fi...

The United States reported the first outbreak of the deadly H7N9 bird flu on a poultry farm since 2017, as the country continues to grapple with another bird flu strain that has infected humans and caused egg prices to hit record highs.The spread of avian influenza, commonly called bird flu, has ravaged flocks around the world, disrupting supply and fuelling higher food prices. Its spread to mammals, including dairy cows in the U.S., has raised concerns among governments about a risk of a new pandemic.The strain that has caused most damage to poultry in recent years and the death of one person in the U.S. is H5N1.But the H7N9 bird flu virus has proved to have a far higher death rate, killing nearly 40 per cent of the humans infected since it was first detected in 2013, the World Health Org...

Alberta Health Services issued advisories on Friday to warn the public about possible exposure to confirmed measles cases in the Calgary area as well as in Fort Vermilion.Around Calgary, the health agency said someone had been in public while infectious with measles, warning people who visited the Airdrie Superstore on 300 Veterans Boulevard N.E. on March 8 between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. that they may have been exposed.Anyone who was at the Sky Castle Family Entertainment Centre and cafeteria in the New Horizon Mall in Balzac on March 9 between noon and 3 p.m. may also have been exposed.Other locations and times for potential exposures include Airdrie Urgent Care on March 11 from 3:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. and One Health Associate Medical Clinic on March 12 between 9 a.m. and 10:30 a.m.Measles is one ...

A little over five years ago, a sense of panic was spreading within British Columbia's public health system as it tracked the spread of a new virus: what would become known as COVID-19. "I think we have to admit there would have been somewhat of a scramble," said B.C. Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) epidemiologist Dr. Jat Sandhu — a scramble to make sure there was enough personal protective equipment for medical professionals and to get information and understand the gravity of the situation. "As an epidemiologist, it was the time to step up."That uneasiness was quickly felt by the general public as details were shared by scientists and government officials. On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic as COVID-19 cases and deaths soared. Less than a week ...