Melanie Fournier went to bed a week ago Thursday feeling grateful that, despite everything going on in the world, she was in the best health of her life.
Less than 12 hours later, the 42-year-old Montreal-area woman was racked with coughs that left her gasping for breath and was burning up with fever.
“I woke up with a little scratch in my throat and started trying to cough it up,” she said in a phone interview.
“Within 20 minutes I had a full-blown fever, I was hacking up my lungs and it hit me: I need help.”
Fournier, who works in health and social services, is one of the thousands of Canadians who have been diagnosed with COVID-19.
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She and several other Canadians have shared their stories with The Canadian Press in order to demystify the illness and to urge the public to respect physical distancing measures.
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In the days following the onset of her symptoms, Fournier felt panic creeping in as she struggled to get through to anyone on Montreal’s hotlines, which constantly disconnected her. Later, she had to fight to get tested since she hadn’t travelled recently and didn’t know who infected her.
Since her test came back positive last Monday, Fournier has struggled with burning lung pain, a cough and fever, and “body aches and pains worse than any flu I’ve ever had.”
But even worse, she said, was the fear and isolation she felt after being left to fight a serious illness at home, with little advice beyond take Tylenol, rest and drink fluids and call 911 if she couldn’t breathe.
“It’s scary going through this by myself,” she said.
Kyla Lee, a 33-year-old lawyer from Vancouver, takes issue with those who claim COVID-19 is no more than a bad flu.
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Lee, who has no underlying health conditions, says she fell ill a few days after returning from a conference in Ohio and was diagnosed as a presumptive case by a doctor after she began experiencing a fever, fatigue and a deep cough.
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The busy lawyer, who rarely pauses in her day and has never taken more than a day or two off for any illness, said that even nearly a week later, on her bad days she’s left gasping for breath on the edge of her bed after just a couple of phone calls.
“The breathing is the big difference,” she said in a phone interview last week.
“It’s like my lungs have sacks of rice around them, so when I take a deep breath I feel pressure.”
Both Lee and Fournier decided to go public with their symptoms to show that even healthy young people with no underlying conditions are not immune and to help others who are worried about themselves or loved ones.
“It’s an incredibly alienating virus,” Fournier said.
“There’s shame associated with it,” she added. “How many people did I infect? Did I infect somebody? Will I cause somebody to die?”
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At 61 years old, both Julien Bergeron and Manon Trudel are in an age demographic that is more prone to complications than either Lee or Fournier.
But the Montreal-area couple, who contracted COVID-19 aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship in February, say the mental aspect of the journey was far worse than the physical.
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The couple had to endure weeks of confinement in their windowless room on the ship docked in Yokohama, with instructions constantly blaring on the loudspeaker and and endless stream of personnel knocking at the door.
Trudel, who has a background in workplace health and safety, knew the proper quarantine procedures weren’t being followed, which added to the stress.
She began asking for protective gear and lobbying Canadian officials and eventually the media, doing interviews from inside their room’s tiny bathroom to avoid the sounds of the couple fighting next door from filtering through the ship’s thin walls.
Bergeron was told he’d tested positive on Feb. 18, Trudel a few days later. She had no symptoms, while he experienced lung pain and fatigue due to pneumonia but said it was no worse than his previous bouts.
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The 22 days Bergeron spent in hospital were the longest the couple has spent apart in 25 years.
“It was very, very hard mentally,” Bergeron said.
Now that they’re home, the couple say they’re worried that Quebec doesn’t seem to be taking the virus as seriously as Japan, where they say those who tested postive were immediately put in hospitals or other facilities away from the public.
VICTORIA – Two newly elected members of British Columbia’s Green Party will officially take their seats in the legislature following the first of three swearing-in ceremonies since last month’s provincial election.
The two Greens — lawyer Rob Botterell, representing Saanich North and the Islands, and geological engineer Jeremy Valeriote, of West Vancouver-Sea to Sky, who were elected on Oct. 19 in a tight election race — could play pivotal roles in the legislature, where Premier David Eby’s New Democrats hold a slim one-seat majority.
John Rustad’s B.C. Conservatives, who captured 44 seats in last month’s election, were to be sworn in Tuesday evening in a second ceremony at the legislature.
Rustad said there was “a lot of excitement” among the party members.
“Everybody is, you know, very eager to get at it and start the work.”
Speaking to reporters earlier Tuesday, the Conservative leader touted diversity in his caucus, saying it includes the first Black woman to be elected in B.C. since Rosemary Brown, who entered the legislature in 1972, and the first MLA from the Sto:lo Nation.
“I think in Canada, as a percentage, we have the largest number of women elected as a Conservative caucus in this country,” Rustad said. “It’s a lot to be proud of.”
Judicial recounts in two B.C. ridings last week confirmed Eby’s slim majority government with the NDP holding 47 seats in the 93-seat legislature.
Eby and his New Democrat MLAs are to be sworn in Wednesday at the legislature.
The premier, who will announce his new cabinet next week, is expected to recall the legislature in the coming days for a short fall sitting to elect a Speaker.
Botterell said the Greens and NDP continue to work on plans to co-operate in the legislature, but he wouldn’t provide details.
“We’re in discussions with the NDP and right now we’re putting together our plan for the next four years,” he said after his swearing-in. “I can’t really give you any hints yet.”
While Sonia Furstenau lost her bid for re-election in Victoria, she is staying on for now as leader of the provincial Greens.
She attended the ceremony along with federal Green Leader Elizabeth May.
“It’s a very encouraging day. It means a lot,” said May. “To see Jeremy Valeriote be our foothold for the first time, first elected Green in B.C. who wasn’t from Vancouver Island, and in my own riding with Robert Botterell in Saanich North and the Islands, I’m extremely gratified.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
OTTAWA – Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland says the Canada carbon rebate for small businesses will be tax-free.
In a statement posted to X late Tuesday, Freeland clarified the parameters of the program after an advocacy group for small business raised concerns that the rebate would be a taxable benefit.
Dan Kelly, president and CEO of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, posted on X soon after that post that he had received a call from Freeland, who offered “assurance” that the rebate would be tax-free.
In a letter to Freeland Nov. 6, the CFIB said it had initially been told by the Canada Revenue Agency the rebate would be tax-free, but was subsequently told by the Finance Department that the rebate was actually taxable.
The Canadian Press contacted both the CRA and Freeland’s office for clarity and comment Monday and Tuesday. The CRA said it would have information available mid-week.
Freeland’s office did not respond to requests Monday or Tuesday until a spokesperson sent a link to the minister’s social media post just after it was posted Tuesday night.
In his letter to Freeland last week, Kelly said the rebate is for taxes paid by small firms, not a “gift” to small firms from general revenue.
“This would be akin to levying income taxes on one’s income tax return,” he said.
Kelly also said 83 per cent of the group’s 97,000 members want the carbon price to be repealed.
The Canada carbon rebate for small businesses was a measure introduced in this year’s federal budget, in which $2.5 billion of carbon price revenue would be paid back to some 600,000 small and medium-sized businesses.
In his letter, Kelly commended Freeland and thanked her for her work in getting the rebate done.
“While this will likely not change the fact that … our members now oppose the carbon tax, the rebate will help government meet its long-outstanding promise to small firms and restore some degree of revenue neutrality,” Kelly wrote.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. syphilis epidemic slowed dramatically last year, gonorrhea cases fell and chlamydia cases remained below prepandemic levels, according to federal data released Tuesday.
The numbers represented some good news about sexually transmitted diseases, which experienced some alarming increases in past years due to declining condom use, inadequate sex education, and reduced testing and treatment when the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
Last year, cases of the most infectious stages of syphilis fell 10% from the year before — the first substantial decline in more than two decades. Gonorrhea cases dropped 7%, marking a second straight year of decline and bringing the number below what it was in 2019.
“I’m encouraged, and it’s been a long time since I felt that way” about the nation’s epidemic of sexually transmitted infections, said the CDC’s Dr. Jonathan Mermin. “Something is working.”
More than 2.4 million cases of syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia were diagnosed and reported last year — 1.6 million cases of chlamydia, 600,000 of gonorrhea, and more than 209,000 of syphilis.
Syphilis is a particular concern. For centuries, it was a common but feared infection that could deform the body and end in death. New cases plummeted in the U.S. starting in the 1940s when infection-fighting antibiotics became widely available, and they trended down for a half century after that. By 2002, however, cases began rising again, with men who have sex with other men being disproportionately affected.
The new report found cases of syphilis in their early, most infectious stages dropped 13% among gay and bisexual men. It was the first such drop since the agency began reporting data for that group in the mid-2000s.
However, there was a 12% increase in the rate of cases of unknown- or later-stage syphilis — a reflection of people infected years ago.
Cases of syphilis in newborns, passed on from infected mothers, also rose. There were nearly 4,000 cases, including 279 stillbirths and infant deaths.
“This means pregnant women are not being tested often enough,” said Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, a professor of medicine at the University of Southern California.
What caused some of the STD trends to improve? Several experts say one contributor is the growing use of an antibiotic as a “morning-after pill.” Studies have shown that taking doxycycline within 72 hours of unprotected sex cuts the risk of developing syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia.
In June, the CDC started recommending doxycycline as a morning-after pill, specifically for gay and bisexual men and transgender women who recently had an STD diagnosis. But health departments and organizations in some cities had been giving the pills to people for a couple years.
Some experts believe that the 2022 mpox outbreak — which mainly hit gay and bisexual men — may have had a lingering effect on sexual behavior in 2023, or at least on people’s willingness to get tested when strange sores appeared.
Another factor may have been an increase in the number of health workers testing people for infections, doing contact tracing and connecting people to treatment. Congress gave $1.2 billion to expand the workforce over five years, including $600 million to states, cities and territories that get STD prevention funding from CDC.
Last year had the “most activity with that funding throughout the U.S.,” said David Harvey, executive director of the National Coalition of STD Directors.
However, Congress ended the funds early as a part of last year’s debt ceiling deal, cutting off $400 million. Some people already have lost their jobs, said a spokeswoman for Harvey’s organization.
Still, Harvey said he had reasons for optimism, including the growing use of doxycycline and a push for at-home STD test kits.
Also, there are reasons to think the next presidential administration could get behind STD prevention. In 2019, then-President Donald Trump announced a campaign to “eliminate” the U.S. HIV epidemic by 2030. (Federal health officials later clarified that the actual goal was a huge reduction in new infections — fewer than 3,000 a year.)
There were nearly 32,000 new HIV infections in 2022, the CDC estimates. But a boost in public health funding for HIV could also also help bring down other sexually transmitted infections, experts said.
“When the government puts in resources, puts in money, we see declines in STDs,” Klausner said.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
