Manitoba’s top public health official says he’s noticing messaging and personal protective equipment fatigue amongst health-care workers at personal care homes experiencing COVID-19 outbreaks. If true, this could impact public health for the duration of the pandemic if not corrected, says one expert.
Four personal care homes in Manitoba are experiencing outbreaks. Three in Brandon, Man. announced outbreaks after a staff member tested positive for COVID-19, while an outbreak at Bethesda Place, a care home in Steinbach, Man., infected five staff and three residents — two of whom have now died.
“We’ve seen on a number of occasions out in the public, with the spread in Brandon, that there’s a lot of fatigue out there with adhering to the fundamentals, and adhering to a lot of the guidelines that are in place that did such an excellent job at protecting us in that first wave,” Dr. Brent Roussin, Chief Provincial Public Health Officer, told reporters at a news conference Monday.
“When we see the spread within some of these personal care homes, we can see that it’s challenging to be using PPE consistently. It’s challenging to do it for so long,” he said. “We have to get back to that fundamental where not going to work when you’re sick, wearing that PPE even though it’s tough, constantly, because we can see the results of that.”
Two Manitoba union leaders, though, say they were surprised by Roussin’s words on Monday.
“None of either the employer or the employees have come to the union saying, ‘Hey, there’s a problem,'” Shannon McAteer, health care coordinator of CUPE Local 204, which represents over 14,000 health-care workers in the province.
Hillcrest Place, a personal care home in Brandon, is one of three in the southwestern Manitoba city where a health-care worker there tested positive for COVID-19. (Hillcrest Place Extendicare/Facebook)
“The staff, as far as we know, are still adhering to [protocol] and still asking for PPE, to make sure that they’re not either contracting [COVID-19] or spreading it.”
The union has received many complaints from workers about visitors at personal care homes not adhering to the public health guidelines properly, McAteer noted.
Darlene Jackson, president of the Manitoba Nurses Union, believes that message fatigue would only be one of various reasons for the current outbreaks at care facilities in the Prairie Mountain Health Region.
“I don’t think it’s attributable simply to the issue of message fatigue,” said Jackson. “But I can tell you that it’s certainly not for a lack of caution and concern among staff providing care.”
“Those frontline providers out there providing care during the pandemic puts them at higher risk for exposure. So nurses absolutely take appropriate donning of PPE and wearing appropriate PPE extremely seriously.”
If what Roussin says is true, though, then there could be consequences for public health for the duration of the pandemic if not immediately corrected, says Michelle Driedger, professor of community health sciences at the University of Manitoba, whose expertise is health risk communication.
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“Health-care workers have to model the behaviour that they want everybody else to also be engaging in, in order to help keep our [COVID-19] case rates low,” said Driedger.
Health-care workers are among the most essential in society because the vast majority of people have to rely on their expertise, she explained. But this means that during the pandemic, health-care workers must lead by example, because “people are going to be following and adopting a lot of that guidance themselves.”
“If they don’t see health professionals wearing their PPE appropriately or regularly, it’s going to start to erode that trust in the public health guidance generally,” said Driedger, adding that the rule applies from wearing PPE, to getting in line for a vaccine when one is eventually developed.
Trust in health care could also be shaken if a patient, who is visiting the doctor for a reason unrelated to COVID-19, ends up contracting the illness from a health-care worker who showed up to work despite being symptomatic, or wasn’t wearing their PPE properly, she cited.
Despite all of that, though, both messaging and PPE fatigue is understandable, Driedger said, given the messaging from public health officials has stayed relatively the same since March, and health-care workers are wearing more PPE than they were accustomed.
To any workers at personal care homes who may be feeling fatigued, McAteer reiterates that wearing the PPE protects them and the residents in their care.
Messaging and PPE fatigue is understandable, said Driedger, given the fact that public health has been giving the same general advice since the pandemic began, and health-care workers are wearing for PPE than before. (Mike Segar/Reuters)
Jackson said the current outbreaks at personal care homes are a reminder that Manitobans, including health-care workers, must remain vigilant of the threat of COVID-19.
“We have to follow proper procedure. We’re seeing outbreaks in long-term care facilities. We’ve seen what’s happened in other provinces in Ontario and Quebec, the tragedy that unfolded in their long term care facilities,” she said.
“We have to be incredibly vigilant to ensure that our most vulnerable populations are kept safe.”
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.
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