News/Health

After decades of progress, childhood vaccination rates have started stalling or falling around the world in recent years, and Canada is not immune to the trend, suggests a new study from The Lancet.The study estimated the coverage of 11 childhood vaccines in 204 countries and territories between 1980 and 2023, analyzing over 1,000 data sources from around the world.It found that although globally there were huge strides made in vaccine coverage for children during that period (vaccine coverage against diseases like measles, polio and pertussis more than doubled), progress started stalling, even before the COVID-19 pandemic.A child receives an oral polio vaccine in Nigeria. Since the 1970s, childhood vaccinations have saved an estimated 154 million children worldwide from dying with prevent...

National health data released Wednesday shows overdose deaths in Canada dropped in 2024 but the toll still remained much higher than it was before the COVID-19 pandemic.A joint statement from the country's chief medical officers of health, chief coroners and chief medical examiners said 7,146 people died of opioid-related overdoses between January and December 2024.That's down from 8,623 deaths in 2023 but much higher than the 3,742 deaths reported in 2019, according to data on the Public Health Agency of Canada's website.The statement said an average of 20 people a day died in 2024 from apparent opioid toxicity.The statement noted that the national numbers "mask important regional differences," with Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador, and the Northwest Territories reporting a rise in opioi...

As people across Ontario, Quebec and major cities in the U.S. swelter under a June heat wave, medical experts urge people to take precautions in the potentially deadly weather.Much of eastern Canada is dealing with extreme heat and humidity, say meteorologists who point to how Environment Canada's heat record for June was broken on Sunday in Toronto. The temperature on Monday was expected to climb to 36 C at Pearson International Airport, with Environment Canada saying hot and humid conditions will likely continue until Wednesday.In summer 2021 in British Columbia, 619 deaths were attributed to a heat event, according to a B.C. coroner's report. Many of the people who died had chronic health conditions, especially schizophrenia, depression, substance use disorders, diabetes, heart disease ...

Anorexia is a life-threatening eating disorder that can manifest as an intense preoccupation on weight loss.It's classified as a mental illness and normally treated with talk therapy, known as family-based therapy, but that's only effective for about half of the mostly women and girls who have it.Those who don't improve may go to hospital and get locked into a relentless cycle of gaining weight and recovering from malnourishment, followed by weight loss and damage to organs, including changes to the brain from starvation.Now, Canadian researchers are testing a new approach, tapping into the growing understanding of the gut-brain connection.They're going to try treating teens with fecal transplants, to change the bacteria in their gut."We know that once the symptoms set in and the brain cha...

As Shirley Pien-Bérubé walks through the halls of the Indigenous Health Centre of Tio'tia:ke, she pauses to point out all the ways the Montreal-based clinic has grown since it opened in 2023."Our services have expanded so much," she said. "We have a diabetic foot-care clinic, we have an optometry clinic, physiotherapy, mental health, clinical psychologist, addictions worker, a spiritual healer."Just inside the main entrance, a table is set up with sage and sweetgrass. Patients are invited to smudge or make their own medicine bundles. Care here is offered in several Indigenous languages, including Inuktitut and Cree.Pien-Bérubé works as a health navigator, accompanying patients and advocating for them within the health-care system. She says that's just one of the services offered here.The c...

The U.S. has approved the world's only twice-a-year shot to prevent HIV, its maker Gilead Sciences announced Wednesday.It's the first step in an anticipated global rollout that could protect millions — although it's unclear how many in the U.S. and abroad will get access to the powerful new option.While a vaccine to prevent HIV still is needed, some experts say this medication — a drug called lenacapavir — could be the next best thing. It nearly eliminated new infections in two groundbreaking studies of people at high risk, better than daily preventive pills they can forget to take."This really has the possibility of ending HIV transmission," said Greg Millett, public policy director at amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research.Condoms help guard against HIV infection if used properly, but s...

Bethany Murray experienced two early pregnancy losses last year and wishes the wait for follow-up mental health care had been smoother.Last winter, when Murray was five-weeks pregnant, she realized she was bleeding heavily and rushed to the emergency department. She was devastated to learn the pregnancy was ending. She and her husband tried again months later, but during an ultrasound appointment, she learned her second pregnancy had also ended early."My brain was just spinning," Murray recalled. "You blame everything on yourself, even though at the end of the day, you finally know there's nothing you did."About 15 per cent of pregnancies end before 14 weeks gestation, according to the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada (SOGC). Some will suffer early pregnancy loss, comm...

If you've recently witnessed a 10-year-old smear their face with an $80 anti-wrinkle cream — either in real life or in any number of "Get Ready With Me" TikTok videos — you're probably already aware of the "Sephora kids" skin-care trend that has young people clamouring for anti-aging products thanks in part to what they see on social media.Now, a new study published in Pediatrics this month, the first peer-reviewed paper of its kind, found that skin-care solutions promoted on TikTok not only offer little to no benefit for children and teens, but they can actually be harmful. And the risks go beyond skin damage (although, there is that, too), the authors note."It's problematic to show girls devoting this much time and attention to their skin," corresponding author Dr. Molly Hales, a postdoc...

In some ways, Najiha Raman is not so different from other 17-year-olds. She crams sometimes for exams. She struggles with some subjects in high school and excels in others. But in one important aspect, she's quite different from most of her peers. Since she was about seven, she's been taking care of her mom, who was diagnosed with ALS when Najiha was three years old."Sometimes, I would try to help her with the wheelchair — but it was a lot bigger than me," she remembers.  It was years before Rahman realized that her responsibilities — such as helping her mom drink water, eat food, adjusting her body when she was uncomfortable —  were not quite typical for kids her age. Rahman says her dad and sister tried their best to shield her from those responsibilities, but there was so much to do tha...

Jeewa Liske was four months pregnant in August 2023 when she had to flee wildfire smoke in Yellowknife and make a difficult 20-hour drive to safety."I was wanting to leave just 'cause it was so smoky and it was so hard to breathe," Liske, now 23, recalled of the day the city issued an evacuation order. She said she was barely able to see the sides of the road as she and three friends drove to Edmonton. When they arrived, Liske was torn between staying to be close to family in nearby Leduc, or living with her mother-in-law in Lkwungen territory on Vancouver Island. After about five days in Alberta, she flew to Victoria. Her anxiety was compounded by being separated from her spouse, a crew boss working to fight the fires in the Northwest Territories.Leaving her home meant she also struggled ...