Health

After U.S. President Donald Trump took office, sociologist Travers — who goes by one name — nixed plans to attend the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport (NASSS) conference in Seattle this November. Travers, a full professor at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, B.C., is the president-elect of NASSS. But as a trans person, they are wary of visiting the U.S. at a time when the Trump administration is rolling back transgender rights."[I] will not be travelling to the United States right now because it feels very dangerous to do so," said Travers.The sociologist soon realized the problem was widespread: around 40 per cent of NASSS's 600 members live in Canada, and many of them reported that they, too, don't want to attend the Seattle conference, due to reports of increased scru...

Whenever Kimberly Couvillon wants to feel close to her daughter, she visits Windsor's George Avenue Park. By the parking lot, there's a memorial: flowers and images of 14-year-old Amber Marie McCollom. It was at that park, nearly one year ago, that McCollom had an asthma attack that claimed her life. "No parent should ever have to live through this kind of loss," Couvillon said. She described her daughter, one of five children, as a "little fireball" with so much energy. She loved dancing and singing and ran track-and-field. A 'scary' diagnosis"Her asthma limited her to the 100-metre-dash, but she was one of the fastest in her class," she said."She wanted to help people. She wanted to be a social worker."Kimberly Couvillon stands next to the memorial set up at George Avenue Park in memory ...

Nova Scotia Health is working to expand access to youth gender-affirming care in the province by replicating a clinic model introduced in the Annapolis Valley last year.In February 2024, a youth clinic dedicated to providing this kind of health care opened in Kentville. Then another opened this March in Bridgewater, with more clinics in the works."Accessing gender-affirming care isn't just a city thing or an urban thing," said mental health clinician Julien Davis, who is also trans. "We exist in rural settings as well and … ideally should be able to access that care wherever we're at."The clinics provide puberty blocker and hormone therapy treatments to youth who have hit puberty, up to age 16. Children and their families can also be referred ahead of puberty to discuss questions and conce...

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...

Ontario hospitals paid for-profit staffing agencies $9.2 billion over a decade, a finding that comes as one hospital aims to stop its use of temp services by September.The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives commissioned Monday's report, titled Hollowed Out: Ontario Public Hospitals and the Rise of Private Staffing Agencies. It focused on increased spending on the agencies for nurses, allied health professionals and administrative support staff from 2013-14 to 2022-23.Hospitals and long-term care homes turn to staffing agencies when they can't fill all of their shifts with employees. Temporary agency health-care workers allow them to continue providing services during staff shortages, although they charge up to triple the regularly hour rate, hospitals have said.Real spending on agenci...

Some nurses will be asked to move into different parts of the health system, according to the premier, in a bid to address issues with hospital waits and primary care access.Premier Susan Holt said the regional health authorities have made similar shifts before — notably, during the COVID-19 pandemic.This time, she said, it's being done to address long-standing issues, noting 12-hour waits in emergency rooms as an example. "We need different results in health. New Brunswickers are demanding that they get timely access to care, that they get the primary care that they need," Holt said.WATCH | 'A lot of registered nurses' are impacted, Opposition leader says:Some nurses asked to take different jobs to fill health system gaps, premier saysOpposition members criticized the government Friday fo...

14 hours agoNewsDuration 2:01Teachers across Prince Edward Island are now trained to teach CPR and automated external defibrillator skills to Grade 10 students in English schools and Grade 9 students in French schools. That means about 1,700 teens each year will get life-saving training. It’s an initiative by a charity called the Advanced Coronary Treatment Foundation. CBC's Tony Davis has more. Source link

When Marie Grgic's mother was diagnosed with uterine cancer, she said her father had to use his retirement funds to finance costs related to her treatment. Cancer costs the average patient nearly $33,000, which includes out-of-pocket expenses and lost income, according to the Canadian Cancer Society. "The cost of cancer is parking, it's the care, it's the hospital visits, it's the hospital beds, the medication," Grgic said. "Why are we having to go into our retirement funds, our credit cards, our lines of credit when we have an OHIP card?" Grgic is among those supporting a private member's bill that seeks to eliminate hospital parking fees across Ontario, introduced after Nova Scotia removed them earlier this month. The bill is unlikely to pass. But the impact on hospital funding, enforcem...

A second family from Gaza has arrived in Manitoba to get "life-changing" medical care for their kindergarten-aged son they couldn't access at home, as part of what Premier Wab Kinew called a "humanitarian corridor" to the province opened in response to the effects of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.Kinew said the young boy, along with his mother, grandmother and two younger siblings, arrived at Winnipeg's airport on an Air Canada flight on Friday."I think it says something very positive about us as Manitobans, that we're able to step up and do what we've done time and time again during our province's history, which is lend a hand when people are fleeing conflict or other challenges," Kinew told reporters at a news conference later that day.He would not provide details about the boy's medical ...

The Dose19:16What do we know about methylene blue?A chemical first synthesized in the 1800s as a textiles dye is making the rounds on social media as an easy way to boost mood and enhance cognition. However, experts say it's only really useful in treating very specific medical conditions, most notably a rare blood disorder called methemoglobinemia. Methylene blue received significant social media attention after a video began circulating in February showing U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. using a dropper to add a blue liquid to a glass of water. "To anyone who knows anything about chemistry, you look at that video and it's very clear that he's squirting methylene blue into the glass," said Joe Schwarcz, director of McGill University's Office for Science and S...