Health

The Saskatchewan government is making measles vaccinations available to infants aged six to 11 months who live, are travelling to, or have contact with people in areas with a high risk for measles exposure.Previously, the vaccine was first offered to infants at 12 months of age."Providing parents with the option for an additional dose of measles vaccine for infants helps to protect those who cannot protect themselves," Health Minister Jeremy Cockrill stated in a news release on Wednesday.Routine measles vaccinations at 12 and 18 months will still be needed for further protection.The move comes as the province grapples with a surge in measles cases. From March 14 to May 28, Saskatchewan reported 46 confirmed measles cases.According to the provincial government, areas with high risk of expos...

Doctors and nurses licensed in the United States will soon be able to more easily practise in Ontario, under changes announced today by the minister of health.Sylvia Jones says the move will increase the number of health-care professionals working in the province.The province is enabling qualified U.S.-licensed physicians, nurse practitioners, registered nurses, and registered practical nurses to start working in Ontario health settings before they register with the regulatory college.They will be allowed to work for up to six months while seeking registration with either the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario or the College of Nurses of Ontario.Doctors and nurses would still have to go through he usual immigration processes, and to qualify they must be licensed in their home ju...

Ontario's Ministry of Health has announced the first recorded death of a measles patient from the current outbreak that started in October. Dr. Kieran Moore, chief medical officer of health, issued a statement Thursday saying a southwestern Ontario infant has died after being born prematurely and infected with the highly contagious virus through the mother.Moore offered few other details.Southwestern Public Health, which covers Oxford and Elgin counties, confirmed the child was from a community in their coverage area."The infant contracted the virus before birth from their mother, who had not received the measles, mumps and rubella [MMR] vaccine," Moore wrote. "While measles may have been a contributing factor in both the premature birth and death, the infant also faced other serious medic...

TikTok says it has blocked search results for the hashtag "SkinnyTok"due to a high volume of content that was promoting disordered eating and unhealthy weight loss behaviours on the social media platform. "We regularly review our safety measures to address evolving risks and have blocked search results for #skinnytok since it has become linked to unhealthy weight loss content," said a statement from TikTok emailed to CBC News Wednesday."We continue to restrict videos from teen accounts and provide health experts and information in TikTok Search," the statement read. The term SkinnyTok has become widely used to describe an online subculture of influencers and content creators that promote extreme thinness.Under the umbrella of #SkinnyTok, creators make videos with snappy one-liners such as,...

This First Person column is the experience of Jennifer LoveGrove, who lives in Toronto. For more information about CBC's First Person stories, please see the FAQ.When I got home from work, there were packages piled at my door. My partner was on his way to my place. There wasn't time to open them, to try on the new outfits, to post another thrift haul on Instagram. Worse, I couldn't admit I'd bought something else — something surely perfect this time! — despite all the neglected outfits bursting from my closet. Cringing, I shoved the packages under the couch and out of sight.That's when I knew I had a problem, one more embarrassing than dangerous. It happened gradually, while wearing ratty sweatpants, during the years between the pandemic and turning 50. I had become addicted to shopping.I'...

England will soon begin administering a vaccine to high-risk individuals that may reduce their chances of contracting gonorrhea, but a similar program is not yet in the cards for Canada.According to studies cited by England's National Health Service, the 4CMenB vaccine, which is presently used in Canada for immunization against meningitis B, has an effectiveness of 32.7 to 42 per cent against gonorrhea.To combat rising infection rates, the health service said last month it will begin administering the vaccine free of charge in August for those deemed to be at high risk of contracting gonorrhea, including gay and bisexual men who have a history of sexually transmitted infection or multiple sex partners.But the vaccine has not been authorized for this use in Canada, even as cases of gonorrhe...

In Nova Scotia, where there's a significant proportion of people living with disabilities, work is underway to measure whether the province is making progress on improving their lives.In January, the Quality of Life Index for Persons with Disabilities was released by an advocacy organization called the Nova Scotia League for Equal Opportunities (NSLEO). The index is a set of 82 indicators measuring more than a dozen areas of well-being and accessibility.The indicators will be used by the Nova Scotia government, disability organizations and others to monitor the well-being of those in the disability community and the implementation of Nova Scotia's Accessibility Act. The Act, passed in 2017, sets a goal of achieving an accessible province by 2030."We are focusing in specifically on the live...

As Alberta's measles case counts soar, doctors and scientists are warning parents about the long-term and lesser-known complications of measles.And they can be deadly.As of midday Wednesday Alberta had reported a total of 749 cases since the outbreaks began in March.What many parents may not realize is that a rare and debilitating neurological condition, called subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE) can develop long after a child recovers from measles."It just frightens the heck out of me," said Dr. Sam Wong, an Edmonton-based pediatrician and president of the section of pediatrics with the Alberta Medical Association."Thankfully it doesn't happen very often but, when it does, it's devastating."Most people can clear the measles virus once their infection is over.But in some very young ...

Marie-Louise Fitrion says she was asleep in a hospital bed when she woke up to an obstetrician's hand in her vagina.It was Oct. 25, 2018, the morning of giving birth to her second child, and she says it triggered the memory of being sexually assaulted as a child.Fitrion is sharing her experience dealing with that doctor, Esther Park, in the wake of Dr. Park's resignation from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) on April 30, which came after her licence was restricted to office based gynecology on Dec. 17, 2024.The college investigated Park's practice for "infection control issues" after Toronto Public Health found medical instruments were not properly cleaned, disinfected and sterilized at her clinic.CBC News was first to report on Toronto Public Health warning some 2,...

Alberta has now confirmed 710 measles cases so far this year, according to new data released Monday, surpassing the 690-case mark set in 1987.This year now marks the most cases in a calendar year since 1986, when 843 cases were reported.The initial outbreak this year began in March and the disease has spread throughout the spring, mainly outside of the Calgary and Edmonton health zones.The South Zone has been the hardest hit, accounting for 520 of the cases so far this year.The Central Zone has seen 102 cases while the North Zone has seen 69.No new cases were reported in the Calgary Zone or the Edmonton Zone over the weekend. The province's two most populous health zones have seen a total of 19 cases so far this year, between them.The spread of measles has occurred primarily among children...