When Patricia Russell was in her late 30s, she felt a lump in her breast. She knew the texture, the feel of the lump, was not normal.
“I was at a stage in my life where I wanted to take charge of my health. But I wasn’t expecting [breast cancer], I wasn’t looking. As a matter of fact, I’m one of the women who said ‘this will never happen to me,’” she said at a press conference Thursday.
But after finding the lump, Russell began examining herself and found what felt like may have been a mass.
“This feels weird, this is not normal, I wanted to push it off,” she said. She fought that instinct and went to get examined, and ended up being diagnosed with breast cancer.
Since that fateful day,Russell has survived two bouts with the disease. Now, she is part of a campaign launched this week with Toronto-based lingerie company Love & Nudes to not only raise awareness about breast cancer in Black people, but to urge the federal government to lower the age of breast cancer screening programs across the country to include those who are 40 years old so that more people of colour can have cancer detected earlier.
Russell spoke at the press conference with other breast cancer survivors and doctors to discuss health disparities, and why Black people, who have worse outcomes when it comes to breast cancer, are being screened less for the disease and are up against a health-care system they saypromotes resources that are centered on white people.
Canada does not routinely track race-based data around breast cancer screening rates, but other Western nations have shown Black people have clear, poorer outcomes when it comes to breast cancer.
In the U.S., Black women are 40 per cent more likely to die from breast cancer and the figure has remained that high for over a decade, according to the American Cancer Society (ACS).
As well, Black women younger than age 50 had a death rate that was twice as high as white women at that age, according to the ACS. The group states that screening rates have not increased and racial disparities in screening rates need to be addressed to start to fix the issue.
According to 2021 data from the federal government and the Canadian Cancer Society, cancer screening rates are lower for racialized people, whoface multiple barriers to screenings, and late diagnosis results in poorer outcomes and a lower survival rates.
The COVID-19 pandemic has also disproportionately impacted Black people due to structural racism and neglect of communities, meaning that these challenges to getting screened have likely been made worse, the report states.
As well, the report notes that two in five Canadians will develop cancer in their lifetime, and about a quarter of all Canadians will die from cancer in their lifetime. For women in 2021, breast cancer was the most common cancer diagnosis, making up 25 per cent of the close to 111,000 cancer cases found in women that year. The Canadian Cancer Society also estimates about 15 women die of breast cancer per day in Canada.
WHY BLACK PEOPLE HAVE WORSE OUTCOMES
Love & Nudes, a lingerie company founded in 2017 by entrepreneur Chantal Carter, sells nude underwear that matches the skin tones of racialized women. Carter told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview Thursday that traditional “nude” colours in lingerie too often are designed with only white people in mind.
This image provided by Love & Nudes shows the insert the lingerie company plans to provide to customers, to show how a cancerous lump could present on those with darker skin tones. (Love & Nudes)
For the campaign on breast cancer, the company is planning to include an insert, in multiple skin tones, with purchases inthe near future that has been made to mimic how a cancerous lump might look on a person of colour. For instance, the redness that could appear for those in lighter skin tones will not be present for the example meant to reflect Black people, said Carter.
She said many people in her life have been impacted by breast cancer, and a close family friend died of the illnesses in her 40s.
“When I discovered these statistics that Black women have a mortality rate that’s 40 per cent higher than white women, it reminded me of my brand and what it stands for:representation,” she said. “The face of cancer is not usually ours.”
The collection with the inserts has been named “Stage Zero” to highlight that awareness and prevention can help keep Black peoplefrom being given a fatal diagnosis, with the hope breast cancer can be caught earlier if screenings are encouraged.
Dr. Mojola Omole, a Toronto-based surgical oncologist who is participating in the Love & Nudes campaignand helped design the insert, told CTVNews.ca via a phone interview Friday that issues with receiving a timely diagnosis are due to systemic barriers around getting screened and accessing care.
“All women, and especially racialized women, should be screened at the age of 40 and it should be yearly. You can’t be afraid of what you might find out, because you don’t want to upstage your disease,” she said.
The earlier the disease is caught, the more easily it can be treated, she said.
Across provinces and territories, mammography is used for screening for breast cancer with the goal of catching any signs or symptoms before the illness actually develops. Programs around screenings start at age 50, though women can often request an earlier screening.
Within Black communities, there can be stigma around discussing cancer due to fear, said Omole.
“By ignoring it, it doesn’t go away,” she said.
People are not always getting access to information about how detecting cancer early can give someone a better chance to return to their normal life, she said.
There’s lots of misinformation online, and the health-care system doesn’t always target specific groups or address their concerns, she said.
This image shows the inserts Love & Nudes plans to send to customers to highlight how a cancerous lump could appear on various skin tones. (Love & Nudes)
Omole said inserts that show what a lump looks and fees likes, such as the ones being distributed by Love & Nudes,should be included in other spaces where people receive health care, even at their local pharmacy.
“The images can be a really powerful thing. When you don’t feel included in the conversation, you just exclude yourself, you don’t think that is a possibility for you … you think ‘that’s a white person’s disease,’” she said.
“We don’t really educate people, that’s what’s needed in medicine in general,” she said.
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.
