Health
Kids at higher risk of catching flu this season, experts warn
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Relatively low circulation of the flu over the past two years puts young children at greater risk than usual of catching it this fall and winter, say experts who also fear fewer pandemic measures and reduced vaccination uptake will further spread.
To a lesser extent, adult resistance to influenza is also lower than it otherwise might be because fewer people received the immune boost of a recent winter infection, says infectious diseases specialist Dr. Susy Hota, stressing the added importance of flu shots this season.
“Our immune responses get boosted to some degree when we see these viruses more frequently,” said Hota, the medical director of infection prevention and control at the University Health Network.
“We haven’t really had that over the last two years. So people could get more symptomatic and pick up these infections and notice them more the next couple of years.”
Pandemic measures to limit COVID-19 spread led to just 69 confirmed flu cases during the 2020-2021 season and only sporadic cases in 2021-2022, according to a recent update from National Advisory Committee on Immunization, which advises the Public Health Agency of Canada on vaccine use.
The pool of potential flu patients this fall and winter is greater, just as masks and distancing rules have dropped, says immunologist Dawn Bowdish of Hamilton’s McMaster University.
“As a population we are ripe for influenza,” she said. “One of the reasons it seems to be spreading a little bit earlier than it would be in a sort of a pre-COVID year is because there’s just so many susceptible people who can harbour this infection.”
Like Hota, she says the potential rise in circulation in the coming months is “a really big problem” for children under two who are being exposed for the first time and are more susceptible to serious illness.
The same is likely true for kids aged three and four who otherwise might have gotten flu when they were babies or toddlers but were spared because of COVID-19 mitigation strategies, she adds.
“Because we are dealing with a whole bunch of kids who haven’t had a lot of stimulation … we can expect that it could be really problematic in young kids this year,” said Bowdish.
She notes a similar scenario played out last summer when a surge of respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, sent infants, toddlers and preschoolers to hospital and strained pediatric health-care resources.
While myriad other pressures continue to strain the health-care system — including ongoing COVID-19 infections that many experts fear will also rise — it’s especially important to get the flu shot this year, Bowdish adds.
As far as flu risk to the population as a whole, infectious disease expert Matthew Miller does not expect one missing flu season will make us vastly more susceptible than previous years.
Miller, the director of the Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research at McMaster, says many adults can count on some level of immunity generated by a lifetime of exposure to seasonal influenza, including seniors who don’t generally mount as strong of an immune response as younger age groups.
That immunity can last years and even decades if someone encounters a flu strain that is closely related to something they’ve seen before.
“During the swine flu pandemic, seniors were disproportionately protected from dying because that virus looked a lot like the virus that caused the 1918 Spanish flu,” said Miller, also an associate professor of biochemistry and biomedical sciences at McMaster.
“People who were very old and were exposed to the 1918 Spanish flu and viruses that were similar to it that circulated in the year shortly thereafter actually still had protection all the way up in 2009.”
There have been occasions where the same strain will recirculate for several years but if it changes, that pre-existing immunity becomes a lot less effective, says Miller.
Thanks to pandemic measures that also shielded most people from flu infection, Bowdish says the types of influenza now circulating are quite different than before the COVID-19 outbreak.
“Because of all the social distancing (and) the masking, many lineages of the flu virus have actually gone extinct,” she said.
Clues to this season’s dominant strain can be found in what circulated in the Southern Hemisphere, says Miller, noting we can most often expect to see the same version emerge in Canada.
“But it’s not always what happens in practice, because, of course, between the Australian season and our season there are gaps and the dominant virus can change in the interim,” he said.
Still, Miller said it’s likely that someone who fell ill in 2019 will have some protections this season, believing any changes to this year’s flu will be “modest.”
While countries including Australia, New Zealand and South Africa were hit particularly hard, Bowdish says it’s not clear if that’s because the virus itself developed particularly problematic mutations, because vaccination rates fell short, or because the vaccine didn’t match the strain very well.
Danielle Paes of the Canadian Pharmacists Association points to a survey of 1,500 adults in August that found only 50 per cent of respondents said they would get a shot this year, down six points from a survey in 2021. The margin of error is plus or minus 2.53 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
Paes says waning interest in the flu shot could also exacerbate the flu’s impact this season.
Hota points to the resumption of many pre-pandemic activities as a main factor driving flu infections this season, noting that mask mandates have dropped, people have resumed travel and are gathering again indoors.
“In previous years, we’ve had public health measures and some kind of restriction in the movement of people or socialization or the ability of people to congregate,” she said.
“It’s definitely different this year.”
Health
Whooping cough cases up slightly in N.L., as officials warn about risks to infants – CBC.ca
Newfoundland and Labrador’s top doctor is warning people to stay up to date on whooping cough vaccinations after a small increase in cases this year.
The province usually sees three to four cases of the disease annually. Up to 10 cases have been reported already since January, however, prompting the province’s chief medical officer to raise the issue publicly.
The increase “generally means there’s a little bit more circulating in the community than what’s presenting for care and testing,” Dr. Janice Fitzgerald said Tuesday.
While officials aren’t overly concerned about a future spike in cases, Fitzgerald said, higher infection rates place infants in particular at risk.
Children under the age of one aren’t yet old enough for the whooping cough vaccine and don’t have immunity to the disease, Fitzgerald said. Infections in small children can be more severe and lead to pneumonia, neurological issues and hospitalization.
Fitzgerald said parents, grandparents and caregivers should check to ensure their vaccinations are up to date.
Whooping cough, also known as pertussis, causes a persistent nagging cough that’s sometimes severe enough to cause vomiting. Vaccines for the disease are offered in early childhood, during high school and in adulthood. Booster shots should be given 10 years after the high school dose, Fitzgerald said.
“Immunity can wane over time,” she said. “Pertussis does circulate on a regular basis in our community.”
The small increase in cases isn’t yet ringing alarm bells for undervaccination within the general population, she added, noting the province still has a vaccination rate over 90 per cent.
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Health
Supervised consumption sites urgently needed, says study – Sudbury.com
A study in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) said the opioid drug crisis has reached such a critical level that a public safety response is urgently required and that includes the need for expanded supervised consumption sites.
The report was published by the medical journal Monday and was authored by Shaleesa Ledlie, David N. Juurlink, Mina Tadrous, Muhammad Mamdani, J. Michael Paterson and Tara Gomes; physicians and scientists associated with the University of Toronto, Sunnybrook Research Institute and the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute at St. Michael’s Hospital.
“The drug toxicity crisis continues to accelerate across Canada, with rapid increases in opioid-related harms following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the authors wrote. “We sought to describe trends in the burden of opioid-related deaths across Canada throughout the pandemic, comparing these trends by province or territory, age and sex.”
The study determined that across Canada, the burden of premature opioid-related deaths doubled between 2019 and 2021, representing more than one-quarter of deaths among younger adults. The disproportionate loss of life in this demographic group highlights the critical need for targeted prevention efforts, said the study.
The researchers found that the death rate increased significantly as fentanyl was introduced to the mix of street drugs that individuals were using, in some cases, unknowingly.
The authors said this demonstrates the need for consumption sites, not only as overwatch as people with addictions consume their drugs, but also to make an effort to identify the substances and inform those people beforehand.
“The increased detection of fentanyl in opioid-related deaths in Canada highlights the need for expansion of harm-reduction programs, including improved access to drug-checking services, supervised consumption sites, and treatment for substance use disorders,” the authors wrote.
The study said a more intense public safety response is needed.
“Given the rapidly evolving nature of the drug toxicity crisis, a public safety response is urgently required and may include continued funding of safer opioid supply programs that were expanded beginning in March 2020, improved flexibility in take-home doses of opioid agonist treatment, and enhanced training for health care workers, harm reduction workers, and people who use drugs on appropriate responses to opioid toxicities involving polysubstance use.
In conclusion, the authors wrote that during the height of the COVID pandemic in 2020 and 2021, the burden of premature death from accidental opioid toxicities in Canada dramatically increased, especially in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba.
“In 2021, more than 70 per cent of opioid-related deaths occurred among males and about 30 per cent occurred among people aged 30–39 years, representing one in every four deaths in this age group. The disproportionate rates of opioid-related deaths observed in these demographic groups highlight the critical need for the expansion of targeted harm reduction–based policies and programs across Canada,” said the study.
The full text of the report can be found online here.
Health
Business Plan Approved for Cancer Centre at NRGH – My Cowichan Valley Now
A business plan for a new BC Cancer Centre at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital has been approved by the province.
Health Minister Adrian Dix says the state-of-the-art cancer facility will benefit patients in Nanaimo and the surrounding region through the latest medical technology.
The facility will have 12 exam rooms, four consultation rooms and space for medical physicists and radiation therapists, medical imaging and radiation treatment of cancer patients.
The procurement process is underway, and construction is expected to begin in 2025 and be complete in 2028.
Upgrades to NRGH have also been approved, such as a new single-storey addition to the ambulatory care building and expanded pharmacy.
Dix says Nanaimo’s population is growing rapidly and aging, and stronger health services in the region, so people get the health care they need closer to home.
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