adplus-dvertising
Connect with us

Health

Omicron arrived almost a month ago. When will hospitals see a rise in cases? – CBC.ca

Published

 on


It’s been nearly a month since Canada’s first COVID-19 case involving the Omicron variant was confirmed in Ottawa, and while local case numbers have since shot up, hospitalizations remain relatively stable.

So what’s going on? Shouldn’t patients have already started showing up at hospitals and emergency rooms? Is it a sign this latest wave will be less severe?

Not necessarily, say some infectious disease experts — and the reason likely has to do with demographics.

300x250x1

As of Wednesday, Ottawa was reporting more than 2,400 known active COVID-19 cases. Only 99 had been confirmed to involve Omicron, although some 560 additional cases are likely due to the highly transmissible variant.

That transmissible nature has led to warnings from people like Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, that people must reduce contacts or the country’s hospitals will be overrun.

“Even if Omicron happens to be milder than the previous virus variants, because it’s spreading so rapidly … even a small proportion of people winding up in hospital is going to overwhelm our systems,” Tam told CBC’s The National this week.

In Ottawa, that hasn’t yet happened: as of Wednesday Ottawa Public Health was reporting six residents being treated for COVID-19 in a city hospital.The number’s been in the single digits since Dec. 3.

In the Kingston, Ont., area, where Omicron was also circulating in late November, there were 24 people in hospital with COVID-19 as of Tuesday — higher than in Ottawa, but also the lowest number in that region since Dec. 6. And it’s a similar story in other eastern Ontario health units.

But what’s going on now also occurred when Alpha and Delta arrived on the scene: initial cases are circulating among younger, healthier people with stronger immune systems, said Dr. Gerald Evans, an infectious disease specialist at the Kingston Health Sciences Centre and Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont.

Fourth-year nursing student Mairin Asquin delivers a COVID-19 booster shot at an Ottawa vaccine clinic on Monday. Evans says a smooth rollout of the booster shot program will be key to fighting the Omicron variant. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press)

‘The first vanguard’

Over the first three weeks of December, roughly 90 per cent of the cases in the hard-hit Kingston area were in people ages 18 to 39, Evans said.

It’s a demographic that’s more likely to go out to bars, restaurants and other venues where mask-wearing and physical distancing might not be observed so closely, Evans said. 

That’s why, over the course of the pandemic, they’ve been “the first vanguard of the virus.”

“It is quite possible that the lack of hospitalization just represents a demographic [where you would] have expected a very infrequent number of hospitalizations,” said Evans. “That’s why that signal hasn’t popped up yet.”

It’s a view shared by Dr. Doug Manuel, a senior scientist with The Ottawa Hospital who tracks local COVID-19 numbers.

New waves typically start in younger folks before spreading out to other groups, Manuel told CBC in an email. Omicron-related hospitalizations will start to show up when middle-aged, older and unvaccinated Canadians start to be infected in larger numbers, he said.

In the third wave, for example, Ottawa hit its record number of COVID-19 patients in hospital, 125, one week after its highest one-day report in cases.

For now at least, cases in Ottawa remain highest among younger residents who are “very unlikely to be hospitalized,” said Dr. Vera Etches, the city’s medical officer of health, at a Wednesday press conference.

“It doesn’t take long — especially with Omicron, and especially if people aren’t being careful with gatherings over the holidays between generations — [for this to] reach the population at greater risk of hospitalization,” she said.

Wastewater signal murky

Despite those well-established trends, Omicron also contains unknowns — particularly the fact it seems to be “expressing itself differently” in Ottawa’s wastewater, said Tyson Graber, associate scientist with CHEO and co-lead investigator with the city’s wastewater monitoring project.

It took roughly a week for Omicron to displace Delta as the dominant variant in the wastewater signal, Graber told CBC Radio’s Ottawa Morning — significantly faster than both Alpha and Delta.

But what’s peculiar, he added, is that as Omicron has gained a hold, the overall viral signal in the wastewater has actually dropped.

That could be because infected people shed less virus when they’re infected by Omicron, Graber said, or because high immunization rates mean not as much of the virus ends up in the wastewater — although both hypotheses remain “pure speculation.”

What it does suggest, he added, is the pandemic has once again entered a curious new stage, although whether it’s a less severe one remains to be seen.

“We can hope, especially at this time of year. But we can’t put everything into hope. And we have to be prudent,” Graber said. “We know what happened in the past, and we don’t want that to repeat itself.”

Ottawa Morning8:51Update on Omicron variant in Ottawa wastewater

New data shows an increase of Omicron in Ottawa’s wastewater, but researchers say this variant’s wastewater signal is different from others. 8:51

To avoid history from repeating itself, Canadian jurisdictions should think hard about following in the footsteps of Quebec and Ontario and reintroducing tough COVID-19 restrictions, Evans said.

Ultimately, eastern Ontario’s experience with Omicron will be more valuable for Canadian health units than what’s going on in places like South Africa or the United Kingdom, he added, where the health systems vary widely.

“Seeing what’s happened here in Kingston, seeing what’s happening here in Ontario and Quebec, [it’s] probably a good harbinger for the rest of the country,” he said.

“We know Omicron is really across the country at the moment … it’s just going to continue to grow.”

Adblock test (Why?)

728x90x4

Source link

Continue Reading

Health

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

Published

 on

NEWS RELEASE
SIMCOE MUSKOKA DISTRICT HEALTH UNIT
*************************
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.

300x250x1

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.

*************************

Adblock test (Why?)

728x90x4

Source link

Continue Reading

Health

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

Published

 on

<!–

–>

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

London:

300x250x1

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.

window._rrCode = window._rrCode || [];_rrCode.push(function() (function(v,d,o,ai)ai=d.createElement(“script”);ai.defer=true;ai.async=true;ai.src=v.location.protocol+o;d.head.appendChild(ai);)(window, document, “//a.vdo.ai/core/v-ndtv/vdo.ai.js”); );

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.

window._rrCode = window._rrCode || [];_rrCode.push(function(){ (function(d,t) var s=d.createElement(t); var s1=d.createElement(t); if (d.getElementById(‘jsw-init’)) return; s.setAttribute(‘id’,’jsw-init’); s.setAttribute(‘src’,’https://www.jiosaavn.com/embed/_s/embed.js?ver=’+Date.now()); s.onload=function()document.getElementById(‘jads’).style.display=’block’;s1.appendChild(d.createTextNode(‘JioSaavnEmbedWidget.init(a:”1″, q:”1″, embed_src:”https://www.jiosaavn.com/embed/playlist/85481065″,”dfp_medium” : “1”,partner_id: “ndtv”);’));d.body.appendChild(s1);; if (document.readyState === ‘complete’) d.body.appendChild(s); else if (document.readyState === ‘loading’) var interval = setInterval(function() if(document.readyState === ‘complete’) d.body.appendChild(s); clearInterval(interval); , 100); else window.onload = function() d.body.appendChild(s); ; )(document,’script’); });

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

Adblock test (Why?)

728x90x4

Source link

Continue Reading

Health

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

Published

 on

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.

300x250x1

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.


The latest health and medical news
emailed to you every Sunday.

“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.

Adblock test (Why?)

728x90x4

Source link

Continue Reading

Trending