News/Canada/PEI

Prince Edward Island's Chief Public Health Office has now identified 10 infants who will require medication to protect them against measles, given that they are too young to have been vaccinated.On Thursday, the office confirmed two new, unrelated cases of measles on P.E.I., with the people involved having been in public places while contagious.Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Heather Morrison said Friday that the infants who will need intravenous immunoglobulin, or intramuscular immunoglobulin in some of the cases, were identified overnight Thursday and early Friday. The immunoglobulin can prevent an infection or reduce the severity if one develops."We have 10 little babies that we're going to be able to offer this immunoglobulin to over the next couple of days, as well as a couple of immu...

Health P.E.I. has hired six senior managers on an interim basis through private employment agencies at costs ranging from $17,490 a month to $43,750 a month. That information is contained in a series of contracts the province provided to CBC News.These managers are filling some of the most senior roles at the health agency, including chief medical officer, chief operating officer and chief financial officer.Melanie Fraser, Health P.E.I.'s CEO, says the private employment agencies provided experienced staff on a month-to-month basis to keep the health-care system running while she worked to develop a permanent leadership team. She says it was money well spent.Health Minister Mark McLane is shown in a February 2024 speaking to a packed town hall meeting in Summerside, as then-acting Health P...

This First Person article is the experience of Maggie Campbell, a wife and mom in P.E.I. For more information about CBC's First Person stories, please see the FAQ.I could hear her heart beat thanks to an at-home fetal doppler. Our three sons gathered around us on the couch and watched as Dad put the jelly on my belly. The sound of their little sister's heart beat made them laugh. I should have been feeling joy in this precious moment, and I did, but that joy was overshadowed by worry. When we found out we were expecting our fourth baby, we were not immediately ecstatic. Instead, our thoughts were: "We don't even have a doctor. Where do we go?"  I called the office of the obstetrics doctor who cared for me during my previous pregnancy in 2022, hoping I could return to him. In P.E.I., patien...

A Prince Edward Island man wants others to be aware of a federal program that offers compensation for serious and permanent injuries from vaccines approved by Health Canada, since he missed the deadline for applying and has been left in dire straits. Kent Gillespie used to rotate among three different occupations to make a living. "I was doing construction, I've been cooking for a lot of years and I had my own painting company," he said during an interview with CBC News at his Charlottetown home. His life is very different now. "I tried going back to work with my nephew and it seemed like every second day I had to take the day off because my hands were just locked up like this," he said, showing his cramped and painful fingers. "I feel a lot less of a human being."Gillespie said his troubl...

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...