The respiratory virus season is upon us and provincial health authorities are urging British Columbians to do “what we know works” including getting vaccinated, staying home when feeling unwell, washing hands, social distancing and wearing masks where appropriate.
“The respiratory season is unfolding as we expected it would, but we are in a very different place than we were a year ago,” noted Provincial Health Officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry.
Henry urged common sense in using “all of our preventative tools” to reduce the risk of transmission but said mask mandates were unnecessary.
She urged influenza vaccinations because “influenza is a preventable illness.” Health Minister Adrian Dix said 1.2 million people have received their flu shot this year, twice as many as last year.
Henry said masks would not be mandated, unless a situation where an entirely new virus came along.
“I don’t believe we need that heavy hand of a mandate,” said Henry. “I don’t see the need for a mask mandate by itself because we have many other tools and a high level of protection.”
She noted that “last year we had mask mandates, but they were not in isolation. It was in the context of what we were facing at the time,” including the early stages of immunization, high rates of sickness including severe illness, absenteeism and various restrictions.
“We are in a different situation now. We have a very high level of immunity. We have vaccines for COVID-19 and influenza and we have treatments for both,” she said.
She noted that 86 per cent of BC residents aged five and over have had two doses of vaccine that when combined with infection-induced immunity means 90 per cent of BC residents have some degree of immunity.
Health authorities have been anticipating a heady year for influenza after Australia and New Zealand were hit hard in their earlier season.
Henry said the return of common respiratory viruses that have been mostly absent in the last two years has just begun in BC.
“We know the three main viruses that we need to pay attention to, COVID-19, but also influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and there are a number of other respiratory viruses that have been causing illness.”
Since early September one of the main causes of respiratory illness across the province has been enteroviruses and rhinoviruses which cause the “common cold”.
But Henry noted that enteroviruses can cause more severe illness and “we’ve seen Enterovirus D68 which is one particular strain of the virus that has been one of the drivers of children needing hospital and medical care over the last few months.”
Just this past week there has been a spike in influenza infections, mostly Influenza AH3, while at the same time there has been a leveling off of COVID-19, “so that’s not what is causing most of the respiratory illness right now,” Henry says.
There has also been an uptick in RSV, “not the dramatic increase we’re seeing in influenza but still an important increase,” she says.
And because of the various health protocols over the past couple of pandemic years some children have not been exposed to RSV and this combined with influenza has pushed pediatric care in Ontario to crisis levels.
“We have several cohorts of young people who have never been exposed to RSV before,” Henry notes. “We are seeing this in some parts of the country particularly Ontario where RSV is causing not more severe illness but because more children have not yet developed immunity to it because they weren’t exposed to it over the last few years it’s causing increased numbers of children in hospital care.”
“We are not seeing the same picture here in BC but we’re continuing to watch. We did have quite a lot of RSV circulating last fall and we’re starting to see an increase now.” The greatest impact on children in the province right now is influenza, in particular Influenza A, she said.
Meanwhile, only 51 per cent of eligible children aged 5-11 in BC have had their first dose of COVID-19 vaccines.
“A year ago we didn’t have vaccines for children, now we do. That’s an important piece in protecting children from a virus that we know doesn’t cause severe illness in most cases, but can.”
Henry also noted that immunity is a complicated picture; short term protection occurs when antibodies are in our bodies but that immunity does decrease after three to four months, she said.
“But we know that the second part – cell-mediated immunity – lasts much longer and gives strong protection against severe illness, hospitalization and death after two doses and this gets boosted up with each booster,” Henry said.
She highlighted that it’s “really important for people to get that booster dose to protect us all from infection and help dampen down the transmission for COVID-19 and the combinations we’ve seen.”
She added that most people in BC are no longer at risk of severe illness and hospitalization, and the booster is important to keep it that way.
Monitoring of wastewater continues which shows a decrease and leveling off of COVID-19 and this monitoring which is primarily in the Lower Mainland is set to be expanded to the Interior and Vancouver Island.
Some Ontario doctors have started offering a free shot that can protect babies from respiratory syncytial virus while Quebec will begin its immunization program next month.
The new shot called Nirsevimab gives babies antibodies that provide passive immunity to RSV, a major cause of serious lower respiratory tract infections for infants and seniors, which can cause bronchiolitis or pneumonia.
Ontario’s ministry of health says the shot is already available at some doctor’s offices in Ontario with the province’s remaining supply set to arrive by the end of the month.
Quebec will begin administering the shots on Nov. 4 to babies born in hospitals and delivery centers.
Parents in Quebec with babies under six months or those who are older but more vulnerable to infection can also book immunization appointments online.
The injection will be available in Nunavut and Yukon this fall and winter, though administration start dates have not yet been announced.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2024.
-With files from Nicole Ireland
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Polio cases are rising ahead of a new vaccination campaign in Pakistan, where violence targeting health workers and the police protecting them has hampered years of efforts toward making the country polio-free.
Since January, health officials have confirmed 39 new polio cases in Pakistan, compared to only six last year, said Anwarul Haq of the National Emergency Operation Center for Polio Eradication.
The new nationwide drive starts Oct. 28 with the aim to vaccinate at least 32 million children. “The whole purpose of these campaigns is to achieve the target of making Pakistan a polio-free state,” he said.
Pakistan regularly launches campaigns against polio despite attacks on the workers and police assigned to the inoculation drives. Militants falsely claim the vaccination campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children.
Most of the new polio cases were reported in the southwestern Balochistan and southern Sindh province, following by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and eastern Punjab province.
The locations are worrying authorities since previous cases were from the restive northwest bordering Afghanistan, where the Taliban government in September suddenly stopped a door-to-door vaccination campaign.
Afghanistan and Pakistan are the two countries in which the spread of the potentially fatal, paralyzing disease has never been stopped. Authorities in Pakistan have said that the Taliban’s decision will have major repercussions beyond the Afghan border, as people from both sides frequently travel to each other’s country.
The World Health Organization has confirmed 18 polio cases in Afghanistan this year, all but two in the south of the country. That’s up from six cases in 2023. Afghanistan used a house-to-house vaccination strategy this June for the first time in five years, a tactic that helped to reach the majority of children targeted, according to WHO.
Health officials in Pakistan say they want the both sides to conduct anti-polio drives simultaneously.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions of people with private health insurance would be able to pick up over-the-counter methods like condoms, the “morning after” pill and birth control pills for free under a new rule the White House proposed on Monday.
Right now, health insurers must cover the cost of prescribed contraception, including prescription birth control or even condoms that doctors have issued a prescription for. But the new rule would expand that coverage, allowing millions of people on private health insurance to pick up free condoms, birth control pills, or “morning after” pills from local storefronts without a prescription.
The proposal comes days before Election Day, as Vice President Kamala Harris affixes her presidential campaign to a promise of expanding women’s health care access in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to undo nationwide abortion rights two years ago. Harris has sought to craft a distinct contrast from her Republican challenger, Donald Trump, who appointed some of the judges who issued that ruling.
“The proposed rule we announce today would expand access to birth control at no additional cost for millions of consumers,” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement. “Bottom line: women should have control over their personal health care decisions. And issuers and providers have an obligation to comply with the law.”
The emergency contraceptives that people on private insurance would be able to access without costs include levonorgestrel, a pill that needs to be taken immediately after sex to prevent pregnancy and is more commonly known by the brand name “Plan B.”
Without a doctor’s prescription, women may pay as much as $50 for a pack of the pills. And women who delay buying the medication in order to get a doctor’s prescription could jeopardize the pill’s effectiveness, since it is most likely to prevent a pregnancy within 72 hours after sex.
If implemented, the new rule would also require insurers to fully bear the cost of the once-a-day Opill, a new over-the-counter birth control pill that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved last year. A one-month supply of the pills costs $20.
Federal mandates for private health insurance to cover contraceptive care were first introduced with the Affordable Care Act, which required plans to pick up the cost of FDA-approved birth control that had been prescribed by a doctor as a preventative service.
The proposed rule would not impact those on Medicaid, the insurance program for the poorest Americans. States are largely left to design their own rules around Medicaid coverage for contraception, and few cover over-the-counter methods like Plan B or condoms.
