News/Canada/Calgary

Fluoride will be reintroduced in Calgary's drinking water starting June 30, about 3½ years after Calgarians voted in favour of fluoridation in the October 2021 municipal election.The fluoridation process will supplement the natural fluoride in the Bow and Elbow Rivers, bringing it to "the optimal level of 0.7 milligrams per litre," the city said in a release.That's the fluoride level recommended by Health Canada's guidance for community water fluoridation. Health Canada is one of over 90 national and international governments and health organizations that endorse the fluoridation of drinking water.Fluoride supports oral health by replenishing minerals like calcium and phosphate on the surface of teeth, making enamel stronger and more resistant to acid, bacteria and tooth decay.The Universi...

As southern Alberta battles its worst measles outbreak in decades, some doctors are warning the virus is more rampant than the case counts show and they're now struggling to keep up with demand.As of midday Wednesday,  628 cases had been confirmed in Alberta since the outbreaks began in March.The last time the province reported more cases was 1987, when 690 cases were confirmed."Unfortunately I think, for at least parts of the province, this is no longer controllable," said Craig Jenne, a professor in the department of microbiology, immunology and infectious diseases at the University of Calgary.The vast majority of this year's cases — 472 cases as of Wednesday — are in the south zone. And the Taber Health Centre emergency department is dealing with high volumes of measles patients, accord...

The Calgary company at the centre of a daycare E. coli outbreak is set to be sentenced Tuesday morning after pleading guilty to bylaw offences last month.In April, Justice of the Peace Mathieu St-Germain accepted the company's guilty plea to operating without a food services business licence at the time of the outbreak.Lawyers for Fueling Minds Inc. — a catering company that provided food to local daycares — and the City of Calgary submitted a joint sentencing recommendation last month of a $10,000 fine.After the sentence is handed down, prosecutor Ed Ring indicated he will ask the judge to withdraw the remaining charges faced by the company's two directors. In September 2023, an E. coli outbreak was declared with at least 448 people — mostly children — falling ill. Of the most serious cas...

As the measles outbreak grows in Alberta, some parents are feeling the strain. They're trying to keep kids safe and navigate touchy vaccine conversations with friends and family, whether they're pro-vaccines or not.Jillian Carter lives in Lethbridge, where the vaccination rate for kids who were seven last year range from 47 per cent in the surrounding county to 80 per cent within the city.Her first child is an eight-week-old infant who is too young to be vaccinated. So Carter leaves her at home when she shops for groceries, goes out less, covers her daughter's bucket seat when she enters a building, and generally avoids meeting new people socially."It does make it hard to branch out into like other communities, knowing that your child's safety is at risk when you don't know where other peo...

Emergency room doctors in Lethbridge are warning that ongoing staffing shortages could make growing wait times even longer.An open letter signed by 16 physicians says the Chinook Regional Hospital has struggled to recruit emergency department physicians and wait times are ballooning as a result.This isn't the first time the public has been alerted about the issue. Last summer, Alberta Health Services issued a notice about the shortage and warned people to expect longer wait times at the southern Alberta facility."We feel a little bit like we're hanging on by the skin of our teeth some days," Dr. Sean Wilde, an ER doctor who signed the letter, said in an interview with CBC News."We just want people to be aware that this is a problem that has not yet been solved."According to Wilde, the ER n...

Infectious disease experts are raising the alarm about measles spread in Alberta, warning case counts are far higher than neighbouring provinces and they're increasing rapidly.Alberta reported 116 more measles cases last week, pushing Alberta's total of confirmed cases to 326 as of Friday. "[It's] really the largest growth in the number of cases of measles — at least per capita — of any place in Canada," said Craig Jenne, professor of microbiology, immunology and infectious diseases at the University of Calgary."It's going to be very difficult to rein this in."Alberta's case counts are second only to Ontario, which has reported more than 1,400 cases since its outbreaks began in October.That province, which has three times the population, recorded 197 new cases in its latest weekly update.N...

The Alberta government says it is taking new steps to rein in the province's measles outbreaks as case counts surge to the highest levels since 1987.The province reported an additional 55 cases on Monday, pushing the total since the outbreaks began in March to 265.The last time the province saw more measles cases was in 1987, when 690 were confirmed.And measles is taking a serious toll in Alberta.The province has confirmed that, as of the weekend, three patients under the age of 18 were in intensive care due to the virus."Measles is preventable and the time to act is now," said Dr. Sunil Sookram, Alberta's interim chief medical officer of health.Sookram made the comments alongside Health Minister Adriana LaGrange on Monday morning, in the first government press conference on measles since ...

Alberta has experienced its deadliest flu season in recent memory and it's not over yet.According to provincial data, 193 Albertans have died due to influenza so far this season, surpassing last year's total of 175.That's the highest death toll since at least 2009.The previous major peak, in 2022-23, was 123 flu deaths.Death rates, based on population, are also the highest in at least 16 years."I'm concerned now that after seeing this trend now for three years that this is becoming the new normal," said Craig Jenne, a professor in the department of microbiology, immunology and infectious diseases at the University of Calgary.While weekly case counts are dropping, influenza continues to take a toll. According to Alberta's respiratory virus dashboard, there are still 172 people hospitalized ...

Alberta's measles outbreak is now the worst recorded in nearly three decades and that has health experts raising the alarm and renewing calls for stronger messaging from the provincial government.The surge is so concerning, Alberta's former chief medical officer of health, Dr. Mark Joffe, who left his post less than two weeks ago, is speaking out and describing measles as a "horrid illness."With 129 cases confirmed as of midday Thursday, the case counts so far this year have already surpassed the most recent high in the year 2000, when 123 cases were reported.The previous major peak was in 1997, when there were 242 cases. In most other years, in the decades after widespread measles vaccination was introduced, only a handful of cases have been reported."Working in a hospital and seeing sick...

The Calgary company at the centre of an E. coli outbreak at several daycares across the city pleaded guilty to bylaw offences and the prosecutor for the city indicated charges against the corporation's directors will be dropped. Hundreds of children fell ill in September 2023 with dozens hospitalized in an outbreak that the City of Calgary said was traced to Fueling Minds Inc., a catering company that provided meals and snacks to Calgary daycares. Fueling Minds and its two directors, Faisal Alimohd and Anil Karim, were charged with operating without a proper business licence in September 2023 following the outbreak that began earlier that month and lasted eight weeks.On Thursday, the corporation pleaded guilty, admitting it did not have a food services business licence at the time of the o...