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Canadian wastewater surveillance expanding to new public health threats: Tam

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OTTAWA — Plans are underway to sift through Canadian sewage to test for and measure monkeypox, polio and other potential health threats, the country’s chief public health officer said Friday.

Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, wastewater detection became a key way to track the spread of the virus, especially as free lab tests for individuals were phased out for all but a few in later waves.

Dr. Theresa Tam said the experts at the National Microbiology Lab have now discovered a promising approach to detect monkeypox in wastewater and will use the infrastructure developed during the pandemic to look for it.

“Moving forwards, it could form part of our monitoring of the disease activity going up and down across the country,” Tam said at a media briefing.

Tam said the method is complicated, but they’ve landed on something that can “probably” be used more broadly. How that monitoring fits into the Public Health Agency of Canada’s surveillance efforts on monkeypox is not yet clear.

The monkeypox disease comes from the same family of viruses that cause smallpox, which the World Health Organization declared eradicated around the globe in 1980.

Cases of monkeypox began to appear around the world in non-endemic countries in May.

Just this week the number of Canadian cases surpassed 1,000, though there are early signs the virus may now be spreading at a slower rate, Tam said.

The Public Health Agency of Canada also intends to start testing for polio as “soon as possible” after U.S. health officials found the polio virus in New York City’s wastewater.

The devastating virus was eradicated from Canada in 1994 and until very recently has not been found in the United States since 1993. Cases have now freshly emerged in Western nations with traditionally high rates of vaccinated people.

A positive case was discovered in New York last month.

The presence of the polio virus in the city’s wastewater suggests the virus is likely circulated locally, health authorities from the city, New York state and the U.S. federal government said Friday.

“We’re already starting to look at what the options are,” Tam said of monitoring for polio in Canada.

Polio tests are just now coming online in Ontario, said Eric Arts, a microbiology and immunology professor at Western University.

The COVID-19 pandemic proved how useful waste can be compared to person-by-person tests, he said, especially when it comes to early detection.

“Instead of testing hundreds of thousands of people kind of randomly to determine if they’re infected with a specific pathogen, or one that we don’t even know is circulating, you can just get a wastewater sample and test 100,000 people with one test,” he said.

Wastewater surveillance can be adapted for other things as well, she said. Even before the pandemic, Tam said the public health agency was looking at ways to scan for antimicrobial resistant organisms, or superbugs as they’re often called.

Wastewater detection is still imperfect though, Tam warned.

“You’re dealing with a slurry of many things with a lot of DNA, RNA, all sorts of things,” Tam said, putting it politely.

That slurry includes countless viruses and virus mutations. Some vaccines, like the oral vaccine for polio given in some countries that includes a live, attenuated virus, can also be confused with the real thing in a wastewater sample.

“It’s not terribly easy,” she said.

Different countries use different methods, Tam said, and even within Canada there’s a lot of innovation happening.

“I think one of the roles of our lab is to then look at the best methods and try and bring some standardization and guidance to that testing,” she said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 12, 2022.

— With files from Adina Bresge in Toronto and The Associated Press

 

Laura Osman, The Canadian Press

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Sixth-ranked Canadian women to face World Cup champion Spain in October friendly

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September 17, 2024

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The sixth-ranked Canadian women will face World Cup champion Spain in an international friendly next month.

Third-ranked Spain will host Canada on Oct. 25 at Estadio Francisco de la Hera in Almendralejo.

The game will be the first for the Canadian women since the Paris Olympics, where they lost to Germany in a quarterfinal penalty shootout after coach Bev Priestman was sent home and later suspended for a year by FIFA over her part in Canada’s drone-spying scandal.

In announcing the Spain friendly, Canada Soccer said more information on the interim women’s coaching staff for the October window will come later. Assistant coach Andy Spence took charge of the team in Priestman’s absence at the Olympics.

Spain finished fourth in Paris, beaten 1-0 by Germany in the bronze-medal match.

Canada is winless in three previous meetings (0-2-1) with Spain, most recently losing 1-0 at the Arnold Clark Cup in England in February 2022.

The teams played to a scoreless draw in May 2019 in Logroñés, Spain in a warm-up for the 2019 World Cup. Spain won 1-0 in March 2019 at the Algarve Cup in São João da Venda, Portugal.

Spain is a powerhouse in the women’s game these days.

It won the FIFA U-20 World Cup in 2022 and was runner-up in 2018. And it ousted Canada 2-1 in the round of 16 of the current U-20 tournament earlier this month in Colombia before falling 1-0 to Japan after extra time in the quarterfinal.

Spain won the FIFA U-17 World Cup in 2018 and 2022 and has finished on the podium on three other occasions.

FC Barcelona’s Aitana Bonmati (2023) and Alexia Putellas (2021 and ’22) have combined to win the last three Women’s Ballon d’Or awards.

And Barcelona has won three of the last four UEFA Women’s Champions League titles.

“We continue to strive to diversify our opponent pool while maintaining a high level of competition.” Daniel Michelucci, Canada Soccer’s director of national team operations, said in a statement. “We anticipate a thrilling encounter, showcasing two of the world’s top-ranked teams.”

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024

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Former Oilers assistant GM Brad Holland follows his father out the door in Edmonton

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September 17, 2024

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EDMONTON – The NHL’s Edmonton Oilers announced Tuesday that assistant general manager Brad Holland is leaving the club.

The move comes almost three months after the departure of former Oilers general manager Ken Holland, Brad’s father.

Oilers chief executive officer and president of hockey operations Jeff Jackson said in a statement that Brad Holland and the team parted ways so Holland could “explore other opportunities.”

Holland, 43, joined the Oilers as a scout in 2019. He was promoted to assistant GM in July 2022.

He had a hand in building the team that advanced to Game 7 of the 2023-24 Stanley Cup final before losing to the Florida Panthers.

The Oilers hired former Chicago Blackhawks GM Stan Bowman to replace Ken Holland on July 1.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.

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Dolphins place Tua Tagovailoa on injured reserve after latest concussion, AP source says

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September 17, 2024

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MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — The Miami Dolphins are placing Tua Tagovailoa on injured reserve after the quarterback was diagnosed with his third concussion in two years, a person familiar with the move told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the team had not yet announced the move. Tagovailoa will be sidelined for at least four games with the designation.

He was hurt in the third quarter of a Thursday night game against the Buffalo Bills on a play where he collided with Bills defensive back Damar Hamlin. He ran for a first down and then initiated the contact by lowering his shoulder into Hamlin instead of sliding.

Players from both teams immediately motioned that Tagovailoa was hurt, and as he lay on the turf the quarterback exhibited some signs typically associated with a traumatic brain injury. He remained down on the field for a couple of minutes, got to his feet and walked to the sideline.

Tagovailoa this week began the process of consulting neurologists about his health. He was diagnosed with two concussions in 2022 and one while in college at Alabama.

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