A Calgary daycare has closed after one of its students tested positive for E. coli.
The company at the centre of this closure is not new to the spotlight, as it was the head of a historic E. coli outbreak in Calgary last fall that ultimately led to 448 infections.
Fueling Brains Academy says in a statement to CityNews the closure is out of an abundance of caution after staff were notified a one-year-old who attends the company’s West 85th campus had tested positive for E. coli on the afternoon of Thursday, July 3.
“We promptly notified parents and Alberta Health Services. We have no evidence this originated at the campus, nor that it has spread; however, out of an abundance of caution, we voluntarily closed the West 85th campus for the remainder of the week to allow for deep cleaning and to ensure the safety and well-being of our students and staff,” the company said. “Safety remains a top priority and we are working with our families, our staff, and Alberta Health Services to determine next steps.”
In a statement to CityNews, Alberta Health Services says it is aware of the situation.
“AHS has reached out to the operator of the daycare facility to gather information on this situation,” the statement reads, in part. “Out of an abundance of caution, the operator has voluntarily closed the facility.”
More information will be provided as AHS learns it.
Parents of children who attend the daycare are recommended to monitor their child’s health, and call Health Link at 811, or contact their family physician if they develop symptoms. If children develop severe symptoms, such as bloody diarrhea, parents are advised to take them to the emergency department.
A sign posted to the daycare asks parents not to bring their children there for the rest of the week — July 4 and 5.
Fueling Brains Academy West 85th Campus has closed out of an “abundance of caution” after one of its students tested positive for E. coli. (Nick Blakeney, CityNews image)
An outbreak declared on Sept. 4, 2023 was linked to a central kitchen used by the daycares. It lasted for eight weeks.
During that time, over 30 kids and one adult were hospitalized, and 23 patients were diagnosed with hemolytic uremic syndrome. Of those, eight patients needed dialysis.
The two directors of KidsU Centennial — operating as Fueling Brains Academy and Fueling Minds Incorporated — Faisal Alimohd and Anil Karim, are facing a fine of up to $120,000 for allegedly providing third-party food services to five Calgary childcare centres they didn’t own.
The city said last September the catering company had also been operating without a food services business license.
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.
