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Facing terminal cancer, Halifax woman focuses on ‘blessing’ she’s been given

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Logging long hours as a housekeeper at the emergency department of the Halifax Infirmary in spring 2021, Maria Valverde noticed she was having trouble breathing.

The Halifax woman figured the cause might be COVID-19, or maybe it was the personal protective equipment she was wrapped in.

But it was terminal lung cancer.

“I should have died in the fall of 2021, for sure,” she said. “That’s how bad it was. I couldn’t even breathe. I mean, the chemo wasn’t working.”

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But her fate changed when she qualified for Tagrisso, a drug that comes with a $13,000 monthly cost.

Valverde’s painting, The Fall of the Empire, is shown. Some of the things shown in the painting are empty store shelves, high gas prices and people living in tents. (Richard Woodbury/CBC)

“It gave me an extra amount of time to be able to kind of sort everything out,” said Valverde.

“And so in that moment I realized, ‘Wait a minute, you know, I’m not ready to die yet. I’m ready to do what I was destined to do, which is to be an artist.'”

A former Nova Scotia College of Art and Design student, Valverde has always made art, but it was never a career.

Now on long-term disability, Valverde’s focus is art. Her exhibit Celestial Hunger opened Thursday at Zwicker’s Gallery in downtown Halifax.

The exhibit’s inspiration comes from searching the word pandemic while on break at work early on in the pandemic. The searches yielded results about The Black Death, the bubonic plague that killed up to an estimated 200 million people beginning in the mid-1300s.

“I thought, ‘Wow, that’s so uncanny,'” said Valverde. “In the medieval ages they had that and look what we’re dealing with now.”

The exhibit’s paintings reflect life in Halifax during the pandemic.

A painting with phrases such as 'Covid pandemic,' 'Wash your hands' and 'quarantine' is shown.
Part of Valverde’s painting, The Plague, is shown. (Richard Woodbury/CBC)

While places such as Point Pleasant Park, The Salvation Army on Gottingen Street and the Robie Street Esso are easy to identify in the paintings, the poverty in the city is also present, whether it be people living in tents or the rapid increase in homelessness.

The paintings also have phrases that conjure up images of the pandemic, including “Stay the blazes home,” “quarantine” and “CERB.”

In the painting The Plague, there’s a hospital housekeeper at work.

“Art is about responding to something that is happening,” said Fiona Valverde, Maria’s sister. “I think that’s very personal in many ways. And this is sort of her story and her journey.”

Fiona Valverde called her sister inspiring.

“It’s all how you decide to choose to see the world and to handle what you are dealt with,” said Fiona Valverde.

“It’s not like it’s been a bed of roses, make no mistake. But she’s really dug deep and she’s resilient, she is a strong human being and she has a fight for life.”

A woman holding a microphone speaks at the opening of her art exhibit.
Valverde speaks at the opening of her exhibit on Thursday, April 27, 2023. (Richard Woodbury/CBC)

Some of the proceeds from the sale of the works in Celestial Hunger will go to Shelter Nova Scotia and an Art Gallery of Nova Scotia fund named after her father, artist Jose Antonio Valverde Alcalde.

After Celestial Hunger, Valverde’s next exhibit, Alter Egos, will open later this year.

She said her health is stable, but she gets tested every three months to see if the cancer has spread.

“Once it starts to spread, that’s it for me,” she said.

But for now, Valverde is focusing on the positives.

“I’ve always wanted to be an artist full time … but it wasn’t until I got my diagnosis that I realized, ‘Oh my gosh, what a blessing this is. Because now I can actually do it as much as I want,'” she said.

 

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Measles case reported locally turns out to be negative: health unit

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NEWS RELEASE
SIMCOE MUSKOKA DISTRICT HEALTH UNIT
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On March 26, the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit (SMDHU) was notified by Public Health Ontario’s (PHO) laboratory that due to laboratory error, the case of measles that had been lab-confirmed positive on March 12, based on symptoms and a positive urine measles laboratory result by PHO’s laboratory, is in fact negative for the measles virus.

“With this new information of the negative lab result, we believe that that individual was not infected with measles and that there has not been any public exposure to measles resulting from this individual’s illness,” said Dr. Charles Gardner, medical officer of health. “We recognize that notifying the public of what we believed to be a positive measles case in our area created worry, anxiety and disruption for some, and we regret this.

“We do know that, despite best efforts, on rare occasions laboratory errors can occur. We are working closely with the PHO’s laboratory to do all that we can to ensure that such an incident does not occur again.”

Measles is a highly contagious viral infection that spreads very easily through airborne transmission. The measles virus can live in the air or on surfaces for up to two hours.

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Symptoms of measles begin seven to 21 days after exposure and include fever, runny nose, cough, drowsiness, and red eyes. Small white spots appear on the inside of the mouth and throat but are not always present. Three to seven days after symptoms begin, a red, blotchy rash appears on the face and then progresses down the body.

The risk of transmission to those vaccinated with two doses is low, and when it does occur tends to show a reduction in the severity of these symptoms.

“Although we are relieved for the individual involved, and for all Simcoe-Muskoka residents, that this case has now been confirmed as negative, we know that measles is still active in Ontario at this time and the potential remains for new cases to arise, especially given the increase in Ontarians travelling to areas in the world that have higher numbers of measles cases,” said Dr. Gardner. “This is why we continue to advise individuals to keep up to date with their routine immunizations, including measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccination.”

The risk of measles is low for people who have been fully immunized with two doses of measles vaccine or those born before 1970; however, many children have been delayed in receiving their routine childhood immunizations and people who have not had two doses of measles vaccine are at higher risk of contracting the disease.

People who do get sick usually recover without treatment, but measles can be more severe for infants, pregnant women, and those with compromised immune systems. Possible complications include middle-ear infections, pneumonia, diarrhea, or encephalitis (swelling of the brain) and occasionally death in the very young. Even individuals who are up to date with the measles vaccine should watch for symptoms of measles for 21 days after exposure.

For more information about measles, please visit smdhu.org or call Health Connection at 705-721-7520 or 1-877-721-7520, Monday to Friday between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. to speak with a public health professional.

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Kate Middleton Not Alone. Cancer On Rise For People Under 50, Say Experts

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Kate Middleton revealed on Friday that her cancer was discovered after she received abdominal surgery

London:

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When Catherine, Princess of Wales, revealed she was being treated for cancer last week, part of the shock was that an otherwise healthy 42-year-old has a disease that mostly plagues older people.

However, researchers have been increasingly sounding the alarm that more and more people under 50 are getting cancer — and no one knows why.

Across the world, the rate of under-50s diagnosed with 29 common cancers surged by nearly 80 percent between 1990 and 2019, a large study in BMJ Oncology found last year.

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The researchers predicted the number of new cancer cases among younger adults will rise another 30 percent by the end of this decade, with wealthy countries particularly affected.

The increase in cases — and soaring global population — means that the number of deaths among under 50s from cancer has risen by nearly 28 percent over the last 30 years.

This occurred even as the odds of people of all ages surviving cancer have roughly doubled over the last half century.

Shivan Sivakumar, a cancer researcher at the UK’s University of Birmingham, called it an “epidemic” of young adult cancer.

Since Kate Middleton revealed on Friday that her cancer was discovered after she received abdominal surgery earlier this year, Sivakumar and other doctors have spoken out about the uptick in younger cancer patients they have been seeing at their clinics.

While breast cancer remains the most common for people under 50, the researchers expressed particular concern about the rise of gastrointestinal cancers — such as of the colon, pancreas, liver and oesophagus — in younger adults.

Colon cancer is now the leading cause of cancer deaths in men under 50 in the United States, according to the American Cancer Society. For women, it is number two — behind only breast cancer.

One high profile case of colorectal cancer was “Black Panther” actor Chadwick Boseman, who died at the age of 43 in 2020.

Why is this happening?

“We just don’t have the evidence yet” to say exactly what is causing this rise, Sivakumar told AFP, adding it was likely a combination of factors.

Helen Coleman, a cancer epidemiology professor at Queen’s University Belfast who has studied early onset cancer in Northern Ireland, told AFP there were two potential explanations.

One is that people in their 40s were exposed to factors known to cause cancer — such tobacco smoke, alcohol or being obese — at an earlier age than previous generations.

She pointed out that the “obesity epidemic” did not start until the 1980s.

Sivakumar felt that at least part of the puzzle could be explained by obesity.

However, there is “another wave” of under-50 patients who are neither obese nor genetically predisposed still getting cancer, he emphasised, adding that this could not be put down to “statistical chance”.

The other theory, Coleman said, is that “something different” has been going on with her generation.

Fingers have been pointed out a range of possible culprits — including chemicals, new drugs and microplastics — but none have been proven.

Some have suggested that so-called ultra-processed foods could be to blame. “But there’s very little data to back any of that up,” Coleman said.

Another theory is that the food we eat could be changing our gut microbiome.

While there is nothing conclusive yet, Coleman said her own research suggested that cancer causes changes to the microbiome, not the other way around.

Anti-vaxx conspiracy theorists have even tried to blame Covid-19 vaccines.

This is easily disproven, because the rise in young adult cancer has taken place over decades, but the vaccines have only been around for a few years.

What can be done?

To address the rise in younger colorectal cancer, in 2021 the US lowered the recommended age for screening to 45. Other countries have yet to follow suit.

But the researchers hoped that Catherine’s experience would remind people at home that they should consult their doctor if they sense anything is wrong.

“People know their bodies really well,” Sivakumar said.

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“If you really feel that something isn’t right, don’t delay — just get yourself checked out.”

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Almost 3,000 students suspended in Waterloo Region over immunization issues

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Close to 3,000 children attending elementary school across Waterloo Region were suspended from school on Wednesday morning for not having up-to-date immunization records.

The region says Waterloo Public Health suspended 2,969 students under the Immunization of School Pupils Act (ISPA).

For several months, the region has been campaigning for people to get their children’s vaccinations up to date, including sending letters home to parents on a couple of occasions, warning that students’ records needed to be up to date or they would be suspended.

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It announced in January that 32,000 students did not have up-to-date records: 22,000 elementary students and 10,000 high school students.


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“We have made remarkable progress from the original 27,567 immunization notices we sent to parents in November and December 2023,” Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang, medical officer of health, stated.

“Since that time, we have resolved more than 24,500 outdated vaccination records, providing students with valuable protection against these serious and preventable diseases.”

The high school students still have a few weeks to get their records up to date or else face suspension.

The ISPA requires students to have proof-of-vaccination records for diphtheria, polio, tetanus, pertussis, measles, mumps, rubella, varicella (chickenpox) and meningitis, which must be on file with public health.

Public health says caregivers whose children are suspended will need to book an appointment at regionofwaterloo.ca/vaccines for clinics, which will be held in Cambridge and Waterloo on weekdays.

“Given the high number of suspensions, it may take several days before you can be seen at an appointment and return your child to school,” a release from the region warns.

“Record submission and questions must be done in person to ensure immediate resolution.”

The last time suspensions over immunizations were issued was in 2019, when 1,032 students were suspended.

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