Tens of thousands of kids visit hospital emergency departments each year with head injuries, broken bones and deep cuts, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada and Children First Canada, and the majority of those injuries are preventable.
Pediatric medical experts and children’s wellness organizations say there are some simple guidelines parents can follow to help keep their kids out of the emergency department.
Dr. April Kam is a pediatric emergency room physician and a member of the Canadian Paediatric Society’s Injury Prevention Committee.
Her organization maintains a set of guides to keeping kids safe at home and at play, including a list of some high-risk activities to avoid, or to follow important safety guidelines for.
Here are some hazardous activities Dr. Kam and the Canadian Paediatric Society (CPS) say they carry a heightened risk of injury of death for kids.
Being left alone with animals
According to Kam, when children under five are bitten by animals, it’s more likely to happen around the head and neck, due to their short stature. Puncture wounds in this area can be especially dangerous.
“They also tend not to be as conscious of the fear of the animal,” Kam told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview.
For these reasons, the CPS says young kids should never be left alone around animals, even familiar ones, nor should they be allowed to sleep with pets.
“Accidents can happen when children tease pets or touch them in a way that makes them uncomfortable,” reads an agency handout about pet safety.
Playing BB guns or air guns
According to the CPD, many non-powder firearms – such as BB and air guns – are almost as powerful as regular firearms.
When a non-powder firearm is fired, the pellets or BBs can break through the skin and cause serious damage inside the body. BB guns and air guns can cause severe eye injury and even death, the agency warns. For this reason, they should never be used as toys.
“Where we see a lot of injuries is when there’s more than one child on a trampoline at the same time, when you’re doing tricks, like flips and somersaults, or when a young child is with a larger child, or adults jumping at the same time.”
In fact, the CPS says trampoline injuries like cuts, bruises, broken bones, head injuries and spinal injuries are on the rise in Canada. They’re also most common among children between five and 14 years old.
In this July 31, 2013, photo, Dr. Craig Cook, trauma director at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo, Utah, points a X-ray in the emergency room, showing a fracture which happened in a jump gym. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
The agency says home trampolines are unsafe, even with adult supervision, and that trampoline parks are even more hazardous. Kam can attest to this, too.
“(With) trampoline park injuries, the kids tend to be more likely to be admitted to hospital than with home trampolines,” she said. Injuries sustained at trampoline parks often involve lower body sprains and fractures, and can even include open fractures and spinal cord injuries.
For these reasons, the Canadian Paediatric Society recommends that parents don’t buy trampolines to use at home and consider the risks and dangers before letting kids attend an indoor trampoline park.
Cycling, skiing or skating without a helmet on
Kids should always wear an approved safety helmet for activities where there is a risk of a head injury, such as cycling, skiing, skating, rollerblading or sledding.
Every helmet should have an approved standards label, which certifies that the helmet design has been tested by the manufacturer to protect the head. You can find this label inside or on the helmet.
Some, like bike helmets, are single-impact helmets, which means once they’ve been in a hard fall, they must be replaced. This also means used bike helmets are not ideal, even if they are more affordable. However, Kam said a used helmet is still probably better than no helmet.
“Theoretically, if you fall once…you’re meant to get a new one,” Kam said. “So ideally, you’re not using a used helmet. But is a used helmet better than no helmet? I mean, I would imagine, yes.”
Helmets sold in Canada are certified by CSA Canadian Standards Association, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, Snell or the American Society for Testing and Materials.
Riding or operating an ATV
In Canada, nearly 34 per cent of ATV-related deaths are among children and youth under 16 years old, even though they represent a small portion of all ATV drivers or passengers, according to the CPS.
More than 33 per cent of serious injuries requiring hospitalization from ATV crashes are among children under 19 years old. Children under 16 years of old are more likely than adults to suffer a head injury or bone fracture in an ATV mishap.
For these reasons, Kam said she wouldn’t allow her kids – who are 11 and 14 years old – to ride one. This is also consistent with the guidelines published by the CPS, which state children and youth younger than 16 years old should not operate ATVs.
“And kids under six shouldn’t be a passenger,” Kam added.
Swimming unsupervised
Drowning is one of the leading causes of injury-related death among children under five years old in Canada, reports the CPS. Many of these drownings occur in backyard pools without four-sided pool fencing and self-closing, self-latching safety gates, or in a context where supervising adults were distracted.
The agency says all children should be supervised by an adult when they are in or around water and should never be left alone in a pool or bathtub, even briefly. It’s not enough just to have other children around, as they may not recognize the signs of drowning or react quickly enough to get help immediately.
Riding in the front seat before age 13
Although this rule isn’t likely to be popular among pre-teens, the CPS says children under 13 are safest in the back seat. In fact, many provinces legally require kids to be at least 13 before they can sit in the front seat. According to KidsHealth.org, laws like these exist to protect kids from airbag-related injuries.
“My oldest just recently is able to sit in the front seat,” Kam said, “and they always make fun of having a (pediatric) emergency doc as a mother.”
When a child aged 13 or older does sit in the front seat, Transportation Canada says the seat should be moved as far back as possible while leaving enough room for a rear passenger, and that the child should sit up straight against the seat at all times.
The Canadian government says it will donate up to 200,000 vaccine doses to fight the mpox outbreak in Congo and other African countries.
It says the donated doses of Imvamune will come from Canada’s existing supply and will not affect the country’s preparedness for mpox cases in this country.
Minister of Health Mark Holland says the donation “will help to protect those in the most affected regions of Africa and will help prevent further spread of the virus.”
Dr. Madhukar Pai, Canada research chair in epidemiology and global health, says although the donation is welcome, it is a very small portion of the estimated 10 million vaccine doses needed to control the outbreak.
Vaccine donations from wealthier countries have only recently started arriving in Africa, almost a month after the World Health Organization declared the mpox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.
A few days after the declaration in August, Global Affairs Canada announced a contribution of $1 million for mpox surveillance, diagnostic tools, research and community awareness in Africa.
On Thursday, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said mpox is still on the rise and that testing rates are “insufficient” across the continent.
Jason Kindrachuk, Canada research chair in emerging viruses at the University of Manitoba, said donating vaccines, in addition to supporting surveillance and diagnostic tests, is “massively important.”
But Kindrachuk, who has worked on the ground in Congo during the epidemic, also said that the international response to the mpox outbreak is “better late than never (but) better never late.”
“It would have been fantastic for us globally to not be in this position by having provided doses a much, much longer time prior than when we are,” he said, noting that the outbreak of clade I mpox in Congo started in early 2023.
Clade II mpox, endemic in regions of West Africa, came to the world’s attention even earlier — in 2022 — as that strain of virus spread to other countries, including Canada.
Two doses are recommended for mpox vaccination, so the donation may only benefit 100,000 people, Pai said.
Pai questioned whether Canada is contributing enough, as the federal government hasn’t said what percentage of its mpox vaccine stockpile it is donating.
“Small donations are simply not going to help end this crisis. We need to show greater solidarity and support,” he said in an email.
“That is the biggest lesson from the COVID-19 pandemic — our collective safety is tied with that of other nations.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
HALIFAX – The Nova Scotia government says it could be months before it reveals how many people are on the wait-list for a family doctor.
The head of the province’s health authority told reporters Wednesday that the government won’t release updated data until the 160,000 people who were on the wait-list in June are contacted to verify whether they still need primary care.
Karen Oldfield said Nova Scotia Health is working on validating the primary care wait-list data before posting new numbers, and that work may take a matter of months. The most recent public wait-list figures are from June 1, when 160,234 people, or about 16 per cent of the population, were on it.
“It’s going to take time to make 160,000 calls,” Oldfield said. “We are not talking weeks, we are talking months.”
The interim CEO and president of Nova Scotia Health said people on the list are being asked where they live, whether they still need a family doctor, and to give an update on their health.
A spokesperson with the province’s Health Department says the government and its health authority are “working hard” to turn the wait-list registry into a useful tool, adding that the data will be shared once it is validated.
Nova Scotia’s NDP are calling on Premier Tim Houston to immediately release statistics on how many people are looking for a family doctor. On Tuesday, the NDP introduced a bill that would require the health minister to make the number public every month.
“It is unacceptable for the list to be more than three months out of date,” NDP Leader Claudia Chender said Tuesday.
Chender said releasing this data regularly is vital so Nova Scotians can track the government’s progress on its main 2021 campaign promise: fixing health care.
The number of people in need of a family doctor has more than doubled between the 2021 summer election campaign and June 2024. Since September 2021 about 300 doctors have been added to the provincial health system, the Health Department said.
“We’ll know if Tim Houston is keeping his 2021 election promise to fix health care when Nova Scotians are attached to primary care,” Chender said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Newfoundland and Labrador‘s chief medical officer is monitoring the rise of whooping cough infections across the province as cases of the highly contagious disease continue to grow across Canada.
Dr. Janice Fitzgerald says that so far this year, the province has recorded 230 confirmed cases of the vaccine-preventable respiratory tract infection, also known as pertussis.
Late last month, Quebec reported more than 11,000 cases during the same time period, while Ontario counted 470 cases, well above the five-year average of 98. In Quebec, the majority of patients are between the ages of 10 and 14.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick has declared a whooping cough outbreak across the province. A total of 141 cases were reported by last month, exceeding the five-year average of 34.
The disease can lead to severe complications among vulnerable populations including infants, who are at the highest risk of suffering from complications like pneumonia and seizures. Symptoms may start with a runny nose, mild fever and cough, then progress to severe coughing accompanied by a distinctive “whooping” sound during inhalation.
“The public, especially pregnant people and those in close contact with infants, are encouraged to be aware of symptoms related to pertussis and to ensure vaccinations are up to date,” Newfoundland and Labrador’s Health Department said in a statement.
Whooping cough can be treated with antibiotics, but vaccination is the most effective way to control the spread of the disease. As a result, the province has expanded immunization efforts this school year. While booster doses are already offered in Grade 9, the vaccine is now being offered to Grade 8 students as well.
Public health officials say whooping cough is a cyclical disease that increases every two to five or six years.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick’s acting chief medical officer of health expects the current case count to get worse before tapering off.
A rise in whooping cough cases has also been reported in the United States and elsewhere. The Pan American Health Organization issued an alert in July encouraging countries to ramp up their surveillance and vaccination coverage.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2024.
