Health

Researchers at the Université de Montréal reviewed more than 1,000 mental health videos on TikTok. They found that more than 20 per cent of them were intentionally misleading or contained misinformation.

Until this month, Nicole Rochon never thought about moving away from Témiscaming, Que. She has a house, lives by the lake and chose the community of a few thousand people as her retirement spot.Despite her love for the town nestled along the Ottawa River and bordering Ontario, a new barrier to accessing health care might tip the scale for Rochon and her husband.As of Aug. 1, the local health authority for the region, the Centre intégré de santé et de services sociaux de l'Abitibi-Témiscamingue (CISSS-AT) is no longer handling billing or processing claims for services provided by Ontario doctors.This means the health authority no longer acts as an intermediary between Quebec's public health insurance board, known as RAMQ, and doctors.A phone call from one of Rochon's doctors located in Nort...

The deadly wildfires that swept through Los Angeles this year likely contributed to hundreds more deaths, say researchers calling for better health tracking in the wake of natural disasters.As Canadian communities from B.C. to Newfoundland battle flames and drifting smoke, new research from JAMA medical journal published Wednesday draws attention to the long-term health effects associated with recent wildfires in L.A. and Maui, Hawai'i.A total of 30 people died directly from the L.A. wildfires, according to the study.Andrew Stokes of Boston University School of Public Health and Finnish researchers now estimate another 440 people died from health conditions related to the blaze.Stokes said these could be people with heart or lung conditions exacerbated by smoke. Mental health impacts and d...

The Ontario government and the Ontario Medical Association (OMA) say they're close to reaching a new compensation deal for doctors working in family health organizations, which is intended to draw more physicians to family medicine amid a provincial doctor shortage.Both parties say the proposed changes, which would impact roughly 6,500 family physicians, are intended to encourage more doctors to practice or remain in comprehensive family medicine. Negotiations are happening as more than two million Ontarians are without a family doctor.The new model, called FHO+, would allow doctors to bill for administrative tasks that are currently unpaid, on top of clinical tasks, according to the OMA. The Ontario College of Family Physicians says in an average week, doctors spend about 19 hours on admi...

Nine people have been hospitalized and dozens of salmonella cases have been reported after an outbreak of infections linked to certain brands of pistachios and pistachio-containing products.Recall warnings have been issued for some products from the brands Habibi, Al Mokhtar Food Centre and Dubai.The Public Health Agency of Canada says 52 cases of salmonella have been confirmed across four provinces, with the illnesses coming between early March and mid-July.Quebec has the most with 39, followed by Ontario with nine, British Columbia with three and Manitoba with one.The agency says the products were distributed to Ontario and Quebec.The 450-gram Al Mokhtar Food Centre brand pistachio sold in Ottawa are among the recalled products. Officials advise contacting your health-care provider if yo...

Chinese health officials are responding to an outbreak of a mosquito-borne virus that can cause severe pain.More than 7,000 cases of chikungunya have been reported in the Chinese province of Guangdong in recent weeks, with most in the southern city of Foshan. Reports from the region say those who are infected are being quarantined in hospital until they test negative for the virus, and workers are going to homes in Foshan to check for risk factors like standing water where mosquitoes can breed.Workers are also spraying parks and streets with insecticide, and authorities have released "elephant mosquitoes" and mosquito-eating fish to prey on the virus-carrying bugs.On Tuesday, the Canadian government added a Level 2 travel advisory encouraging travelers to practice enhanced health precautio...

The measles outbreak in southwestern Ontario has put the spotlight on vaccine hesitancy in some of the province's Mennonite communities in recent months. Public health units were dealing with hundreds of sick people, primarily children, this past spring, with the number of cases only recently dropping off in July. Southwestern Public Health, which covers an area with a large Mennonite community, translated material in Low German to try to educate people about the risk. Catalina Friesen is a personal support worker who was raised Mennonite in Mexico and moved to Canada with her family as a child. She's now a personal support worker with a mobile clinic that works with Mennonite families in the Aylmer area.She recently wrote an editorial for MacLean's magazine about her experience during the...

Quebec doctors are sounding the alarm over recent deepfake videos that have been appearing online, saying they can erode public trust in the medical system and put people's health at risk.The AI-generated videos use the likeness of real doctors to give questionable health-care advice and falsely advertise or sell certain products. "It is something that is putting a lot of damage on all physicians in Quebec and in Canada," said Dr. François Marquis, chief of intensive care at Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital in Montreal.Marquis said he was in disbelief when he first learned his image was being used in a deepfake video. He received phone calls from people saying "you're all over Facebook," he said, "or that you have discovered something and they want to know if it's true and if they can get the...

Canadians' electronic health records need more protections to prevent foreign entities from accessing patient data, according to commentary in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. "Canadian privacy law is badly outdated," said Michael Geist, law professor and Canada Research Chair in internet and e-commerce law at the University of Ottawa and co-author of the commentary. "We're now talking about decades since the last major change." Geist says electronic medical records systems from clinics and hospitals — containing patients' personal health information — are often controlled by U.S. companies. The data is encrypted and primarily stored on cloud servers in Canada, but because those are owned by American companies, they are subject to American laws.Michael Geist is a law professor at ...

"I know it's not stylish," admits Nicholas Ogden, "but it actually does prevent the ticks."He tucks his pants into his socks, then sprays insect repellant over both.The scientist is preparing to test a section of Mont-Saint Bruno, a hill in southern Quebec, for ticks — without catching the diseases they carry. Today, he's got a special eye out for black-legged tick nymphs. At this stage, they're about as big as a poppy seed, and they're the most likely suspects carrying bacteria and parasites that cause maladies like Lyme disease, anaplasmosis or babesiosis. Blacklegged tick nymphs, like the one pictured here, are about the size of a poppy seed. People in Canada are most likely to acquire Lyme disease after being bitten by them. (Dave St-Amant/CBC News)With warmer temperatures, ticks have ...