“It was very shocking. Over the course of last week, it was quite a roller coaster,” Hoyt Hangtian She, Braineer co-founder and co-owner, said.
The co-owner said he got a call from an AHS officer on the evening of Sept. 2, verifying his identity and connection with the daycare.
He was then told he was part of a swath of closures of 11 daycares linked to a central kitchen that Calgary Zone medical officer officer of health Dr. Franco Rizzuti previously said was “out of an abundance of caution.”
The Braineer co-owner said he and his team communicated with parents on a daily basis, to keep them updated on items like a thorough sanitization of the facility, an AHS inspection, whether any cases had been linked to Braineer and an anticipated open date.
“Fortunately, towards the end of the week, we realized that no one from our centre was tested positive. And we feel fortunate on that front,” She said. “I’m also very saddened by the fact that there are 190 children who are currently sick.”
She said the AHS inspectors were satisfied with Braineer’s food handling practices during the inspection.
“These are the things that we follow strictly and then we still got into this kind of incident,” he said.
“It was really just quite a bit disheartening of feeling like a victim in general.”
The co-owner said he’s glad to see kids back at Braineer, who said they “seem happy and healthy.” He also said the parents seem happier than they did last week.
Braineer is using a “transitional period” of only serving packaged snacks, using disposable plates and cutlery, and asking parents to pack lunches for their children.
The Braineer co-owner said they’re not sure whether they’ll be returning to the services of Fueling Minds, the catering kitchen they were using previously.
“It will take us some time to figure out what is the safest and the most nutritious way to cater for the kids and also make sure it’s convenient for the parents,” She said.
“We haven’t heard from (Fueling Minds) so far and we don’t even know what’s going on.”
‘A complete nightmare’ without answers
Alexander Zam, three, was one of the children at a daycare that was infected by the Shiga toxin-producing E. coli. He’d been attending the daycare for years.
Zam’s father Ryan said the three-year-old was “feeling uncomfortable” on Sept. 3 and by that evening had bloody diarrhea.
At the time Alexander was showing tell-tale symptoms of an E. coli infection, the Zam family received an email from Fueling Brains Academy with advice to take their child to hospital with those symptoms. The next day, stool tests showed Alexander was infected by the bacterium.
“It was a complete nightmare from Sunday night (Sept. 3) all the way until probably Saturday when we finally got the bloodwork that he was no longer at risk of developing HUS or that he wasn’t going to be prolonged stay in the hospital,” Ryan said.
AHS said it is “highly likely” the outbreak’s source was distributed from a central kitchen and while it hasn’t been able to identify the food item that was the source, it continues to investigates.
When Alexander will return to daycare is still in question, but he does have to meet some criteria.
“We were told by the doctors it could be up to 30 days before the E. coli leaves the system. So we need two negative E.coli tests before he’s allowed at any child-care facility,” Ryan said.
But Ryan said the communication about a gastrointestinal bug going around Fueling Brains locations lacked detail and frequency.
“The daycare emails were kind of sporadic. Initially, we weren’t really hearing much of anything and everything was vague,” he said.
“Yesterday… was the first time that the daycare was actually called to check on how our son is doing. We missed the phone call. It was a voicemail.
“It probably wouldn’t have been very good if we would have gotten it.”
A visit from Alexander’s cousin also turned out to have secondary effects.
“(Our nephew) was playing with our son and we had obviously no idea about the E. coli and found out a couple of days ago that he was developing symptoms and now has to go in and out of the hospital, the same as our son did,” Ryan said.
Dr. Ted Steiner, an infectious diseases physician in Vancouver, said E. coli can be spread easily.
“You don’t need a lot of bacteria in order to get sick and what that means is it can actually spread from person to person,” Steiner told Global News.
Ryan said he had “numerous fits” of anger over the entire situation.
“On the 5th of September, I actually emailed the premier’s office to let them know about this and what was going on, and got an email back on Sept. 6 saying that they had received it and it was being forwarded to the Minister of Children and Family Services,” he said.
Premier Danielle Smith and Health Minister Adriana LaGrange offered their “thoughts and prayers” to the children and families affected by the outbreak via social media on Sunday.
“The fact that it took until the 10th of September to hear anything, I think, is a little bit ridiculous.”
Ryan wants to see an inquiry into the cause of the outbreak.
LaGrange, Turton, chief medical officer of health Dr. Mark Joffe and Dr. Tania Principi, the section chief of pediatric emergency medicine at Alberta Children’s Hospital, will provide an update on the outbreak Tuesday at 9 a.m.
Ryan said any light shed on the outbreak can help him, like other parents, decide on next steps for his child.
“I want to know if we were to send our child back there or send our child to any other daycare facility, that this isn’t going to happen again,” he said.
The eight other daycares that were closed as part of the outbreak will be allowed to reopen on Tuesday, but anyone who tested positive as part of the outbreak will require two negative tests to return to the daycares.
“The wait lists for daycares to get a child in is over a year for some places. And I imagine now with everything that’s gone on, that list has probably only gone up,” Ryan said.
“We may be forced to just have him go back, which is terrifying.”
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.
