Some hospitals in the Greater Toronto Area are seeing a spike in the numbers of people coming in with respiratory viruses, emergency room physicians say.
Dr. Dennis Cho, deputy medical director of emergency departments at University Health Network (UHN) in Toronto, said on Monday that the wave of people with respiratory complaints in ERs marks the return of cold and flu season in pre-pandemic numbers.
Cho said flu and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) numbers have doubled in the past two weeks at UHN, which includes Toronto General and Toronto Western hospitals. Now, when he goes to work, he said the emergency room is packed.
“There is still COVID around, but everything else is back, all the colds, the flus, the other viruses that contribute to cough and cold season. They’re back and they’re back with a vengeance,” Cho said.
“I think we’re only expecting numbers to go up. The holiday season appropriately is a time when people can get together. When people mingle, viruses mingle as well and they can transmit from person to person. We are anticipating a busy season.”
Cho said while UHN is seeing young and old people who are sick with viruses, not everyone needs to go to the hospital. He advises people to judge the severity of their symptoms, urging people to go to the emergency room if they have any of the following: severe shortness of breath; inability to stay hydrated; and decreased level of consciousness, such as when people are confused or not acting like themselves.
Dr. Dennis Cho, deputy medical director of emergency departments at University Health Network in Toronto, says: ‘There is still COVID around, but everything else is back, all the colds, the flus, the other viruses that contribute to cough and cold season. They’re back and they’re back with a vengeance.’ (CBC)
Respiratory wave began in fall, doctor says
Dr. Sumon Chakrabarti, an infectious diseases physician at Trillium Health Partners in Mississauga, said on Monday that doctors are continuing to see a respiratory wave that began in late October or early November. He said some viruses that were not prevalent during the pandemic, such as rhinovirus or adenovirus, are resurfacing.
As for COVID-19, he said its severity seems to have dropped given immunity in the community.
“The people that we’re seeing that are occasionally getting very sick from COVID, they tend to be quite elderly — we’re talking in their 90s, or with very profound immune suppression, such as someone with a transplant or a blood cancer,” he said.
Chakrabarti said the number of people going to ERs with respiratory complaints is not surprising.
“What we are seeing here is not anything different than what we saw in the years before the pandemic. It’s expected at this time of year. We see stress on the health-care system.”
As for the other respiratory illnesses circulating, Chakrabarti said he expects those to drop in January after the holiday spike.
“Things tend to look a lot brighter come the new year,” he said.
A sign at Humber River Hospital in its emergency department in Toronto indicates estimated wait times. (Alex Lupul/CBC)
Toronto Public Health (TPH), for its part, sent home a notice to families in the Toronto District School Board on Friday on ways to reduce the spread of viruses over the holidays. TPH recommends people:
Get vaccines for which you are eligible as soon as possible at a participating pharmacy or your primary health care provider to prevent serious illness.
Wear a well-fitted, high-quality mask in indoor public settings if you are at higher risk of getting very sick.
Stay home when sick or if you have symptoms of illness, even if they are mild.
Wear a mask for 10 days after symptoms begin to protect others at home, school and work.
Wash or sanitize your hands often.
Cover coughs and sneezes with an elbow or a tissue.
Clean high-touch surfaces often.
According to the City of Toronto’s integrated respiratory diseases dashboard, which provides numbers on confirmed and probable COVID cases and confirmed influenza cases reported to TPH, there were 258 influenza cases from Dec. 3 to Dec. 9 and 152 influenza cases in the previous week from Nov. 26 to Dec. 2. The dashboard indicates there were 838 COVID-19 cases from Dec. 3 to Dec. 9 and 827 cases in the previous week from Nov. 26 to Dec. 2.
There were 30 COVID-19 institutional outbreaks from Dec. 3 to Dec. 9 and 17 institutional outbreaks from Nov. 26 to Dec. 2.
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.
All orders are protected by SSL encryption – the highest industry standard for online security from trusted vendors.
Bizarre Sunlight Loophole Melts Belly Fat Fast! is backed with a 60 Day No Questions Asked Money Back Guarantee. If within the first 60 days of receipt you are not satisfied with Wake Up Lean™, you can request a refund by sending an email to the address given inside the product and we will immediately refund your entire purchase price, with no questions asked.
