Health

It's hard to believe opioid deaths are dropping when you're walking on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, where B.C.'s drug crisis is most visible.Open drug use is still common and on a dry day, you can count on seeing dozens of people unconscious on the sidewalk.But the numbers don't lie: overdose deaths in 2024 decreased 12 per cent in B.C. and across the country compared to the previous 12 months, according to January data from the province and March data from Health Canada. The epidemic has killed 50,928 Canadians since 2016 — that's all the seats in Rogers Stadium in Toronto, and then some. According to Health Canada, 21 people a day, on average, die from toxic drugs in this country.But the declines mark a small but distinct shift in the country's overdose epidemic, which was officially d...

A 24-year-old Kingston, Ont., woman has been sentenced to house arrest for what a judge called a series of lies that included forging nursing credentials that allowed her to treat roughly 200 patients before being found out.Madeline Stenhouse appeared in the Ontario Court of Justice on Tuesday wearing a black suit and glasses. She nodded as Justice Alison Wheeler described her "youthfulness" as a reason to show restraint in sentencing."Ms. Stenhouses's offending was the product of immaturity in not knowing how to accept or deal with the fact that she failed nursing school," the judge read from her decision.The fake nurse was sentenced to two years less a day to be served in the community, including 18 months of house arrest.She was also ordered to complete 240 hours of community service wi...

The CAQ government has come up with $85 million to make upgrades to the Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital. The first phase of renovations would modernize the hospital's parking lot, but opposition parties are questioning the government's plan. Source link

Nova Scotia is confirming its first case of measles.Dr. Robert Strang, the chief medical officer of health, told a news conference Tuesday that the patient is an adult in Halifax who recently travelled to the United States. They went to the emergency department at the QEII hospital in Halifax on Sunday night."We were well prepared for this," Strang said. "Appropriate steps were taken very quickly when this person came in for care to minimize exposure."Strang said the patient had one dose of the measles vaccine when they were younger, but did not receive the second. The Health Department said in a news release that "people generally need two [doses] to be fully vaccinated" against measles.Strang said people should not be alarmed by the situation because measles outbreaks in Canada are large...

A nursing assistant who was the first home-care worker to see Normand Meunier after a disastrous hospital stay in Saint-Jérôme, Que., in January 2024 described the bedsore he returned home with as "horrible."Brigitte Guilbon, a licensed practical nurse who was part of Meunier's care team from 2022 until his death in March 2024, testified Tuesday at the coroner's inquiry looking into the 66-year-old's death.Guilbon testified she had never seen a wound like the one Meunier returned home with after being stuck on a stretcher for four days in the emergency room."His morale was very, very low, and the sore was horrible," Guilbon testified, wiping her eyes as her voice broke.As Guilbon described the gaping, blackened wound on Meunier's buttocks a few centimetres in diameter, coroner Dave Kimpton...

Measles cases in Ontario have increased by 140 this week, for a total of 1,383 cases, the province's top doctor said. A total of 98 people have been hospitalized, said Dr. Kieran Moore, the province's chief medical officer of health. That's an increase of 14 people compared to numbers released last week by Public Health Ontario.  The majority of measles cases are in southwest Ontario in farming and rural communities, Moore said. Local health units have been translating materials to Low German, which is primarily spoken among these communities, to inform people about measles symptoms and the benefits of being vaccinated."Given the numbers in these communities that are unvaccinated and we're dealing with measles, the most infectious virus that we know of, it will be very difficult to control...

3 hours agoNewsDuration 4:57For this year's Mental Health Week, the theme is Unmasking Mental Health. CBC Montreal host Douglas Gelevan speaks with Dr. Jennifer Russell, the chief of the department of psychology at the MUHC, about ways people can help themselves or their loved ones overcome the stigma. Source link

Some experts say involuntary addiction treatment raises serious ethical concerns and could even increase the risk of overdose for some, as Ontario weighs whether it could mandate treatment for people in the criminal justice system. Last week, the Ontario government announced that it plans to study how this can be done, how much it would cost, and what kind of help they would need from the federal government, among other factors. But those working in the addictions and mental health field say there's little to no concrete evidence suggesting involuntary addiction treatment is effective. "That type of research really hasn't been done," said Sarah Dermody, a clinical psychologist and professor of psychology at Toronto Metropolitan University."So we're in a position where people are advocating...

The Alberta government says it is taking new steps to rein in the province's measles outbreaks as case counts surge to the highest levels since 1987.The province reported an additional 55 cases on Monday, pushing the total since the outbreaks began in March to 265.The last time the province saw more measles cases was in 1987, when 690 were confirmed.And measles is taking a serious toll in Alberta.The province has confirmed that, as of the weekend, three patients under the age of 18 were in intensive care due to the virus."Measles is preventable and the time to act is now," said Dr. Sunil Sookram, Alberta's interim chief medical officer of health.Sookram made the comments alongside Health Minister Adriana LaGrange on Monday morning, in the first government press conference on measles since ...

JAMP Pharma Corp. says it is recalling one lot of its pregabalin pain medication because some bottles labelled to contain 50-milligram capsules may contain 150-milligram capsules instead.The mislabelled product could lead to patients receiving a much larger dose than prescribed, which could result in an overdose and "pose serious, potentially fatal health risks," Health Canada said in a public advisory. JAMP-Pregabalin is a prescription drug used in adults to treat pain caused by nerve damage due to diabetes, shingles or spinal cord injury, as well as pain associated with fibromyalgia.Symptoms of pregabalin overdose may include sudden mood changes, sleepiness, confusion, depression, agitation, restlessness and seizures, the regulator said.Taking too much pregabalin while also taking drugs ...