Canada’s public health agency has logged a record number of potentially deadly strep A infections, particularly in children under the age of 15. At least six children have died in Ontario.
“The concern is that it can be rapidly progressive and life-threatening,” Dr. Kwadwo Kyeremanteng, head of critical care at The Ottawa Hospital, told CTV News Channel. “We’ve seen more cases of this in our intensive care unit, and the results have been pretty significant where people have lost their limbs, people have passed away.”
As of Jan. 9, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) has received more than 4,600 invasive group A streptococcus samples from 2023, which is the highest annual total ever recorded in Canada and a more than 40 per cent increase over a previous 2019 peak of 3,236 cases. According to PHAC, invasive group A streptococcus is endemic in the country, with 2,000 to 3,000 cases reported annually in recent years.
“Early laboratory data indicates that [invasive group A streptococcus] disease activity in 2023 was higher compared to pre-pandemic years,” a PHAC spokesperson said in an emailed statement shared with CTVNews.ca. “The largest increases continue to be detected in children under 15 years of age.”
Infections from group A streptococcus bacteria are typically mild and can cause strep throat, which is usually treated with antibiotics. More severe and invasive infections are much less common, but potentially deadly.
Invasive group A streptococcus occurs when strep A bacteria causes a deeper infection that can lead to lung infections like pneumonia, debilitating flesh-eating disease, or even toxic shock syndrome, which is when bacteria produces toxins that cause organs in the body to stop functioning. Approximately one in 10 people die from invasive infections, according to a U.S. study. Serious outcomes can include amputation and major organ damage.
“An invasive infection really means the bacteria has moved to a site that should normally be sterile, such as the blood or under the skin in soft tissue or muscle,” University of Western Ontario microbiology and immunology professor John McCormick told CTVNews.ca. “This is what is sometimes called the flesh-eating disease and can progress very quickly. These infections can present in different ways but severe pain that is out of proportion to what you see is a common symptom, or something that would suggest a spreading infection or skin colour changes.”
A Jan. 11 report from Public Health Ontario says that 48 people have died from strep A infections in the province since October, including 23 people aged 65 or older and six children under the age of nine.
“This is higher than the proportion of [invasive group A streptococcus] cases within the same age group that had a fatal outcome reported in the same reporting period for the previous season… and exactly half of the total number of pediatric deaths reported in the entire 2022-23 season,” the Ontario report said.
Dr. David Fisman is a physician and epidemiologist, as well as a professor at the University of Toronto’s school of public health. Fisman says that viral infections like COVID, influenza and RSV can make people more vulnerable to subsequent bacterial infections, which could be driving new strep cases.
“They seem to do this by killing some of the immune defences in the upper airway, ‘setting the table’ for invasive infection,” Fisman told CTVNews.ca. “Canadians should be aware and appropriately concerned about this, as invasive group A streptococcal infections [as opposed to ‘strep throat’] is a serious and life threatening infection.”
Health officials say you should seek medical attention if you believe you have an infection.
Initial symptoms may include fever, sore throat and mild skin infections like rashes, sores and blisters. Streptococcus bacteria can be transmitted through direct contact with infected skin wounds, or from fluids in the nose and throat that can be spread when an infected person coughs or sneezes.
“Antibiotics are used to treat both invasive and non-invasive [group A streptococcus] diseases,” PHAC explains. “Early treatment may make symptoms less severe or prevent more serious complications.”
Kyeremanteng from the Ottawa Hospital says that when it comes to treatment, “time is of the essence.”
“One of the main messages that I’m hoping to [get] across… is that if you are having signs and symptoms, not to ignore them and to seek medical attention as soon as you can,” Kyeremanteng added. “The key is to have early antibiotics provided, and monitoring.”
PHAC says invasive group A streptococcus has been “a priority for monitoring and control” by provincial, territorial and federal authorities for more than two decades, and that all cases “must be reported” to public health authorities.
“Group A streptococcal infections are complicated infections,” Dr. Dale Kalina, chief medical information officer at the Brant Community Healthcare System in Brantford, Ont., told CTV News Channel. “It doesn’t matter how busy your local emergency department is: if you’re concerned, if you’re feeling unsafe, if you have any of these red flag symptoms, come into the hospital, reach out for medical attention, that is why we’re here.”
“They seem to do this by killing some of the immune defences in the upper airway, ‘setting the table’ for invasive infection,” Fisman explained. “Canadians should be aware and appropriately concerned about this, as invasive group A streptococcal infections (as opposed to ‘strep throat’) is a serious and life threatening infection.”
Health officials say you should seek medical attention if you believe you have a group A streptococcus infection. Initial symptoms may include fever, sore throat and mild skin infections like rashes, sores and blisters. Streptococcus bacteria can be transmitted through direct contact with infected skin wounds, or from fluids in the nose and throat that can be spread when an infected person coughs or sneezes.
“Antibiotics are used to treat both invasive and non-invasive [group A streptococcus] diseases,” PHAC explains. “Early treatment may make symptoms less severe or prevent more serious complications.”
PHAC says invasive group A streptococcus has been “a priority for monitoring and control” by provincial, territorial and federal authorities for more than two decades, and that all cases “must be reported” to public health authorities.
McCormick from the University of Western Ontario is studying deadly streptococcus bacteria at his lab with the aim of finding a vaccine. He estimates that 10 per cent of school-aged children carry the bacteria without showing symptoms.
“Some of the new strains have a mutation that causes them to be more toxic which is very likely contributing to the bacteria causing more aggressive infections,” McCormick said. “If you believe you have a strep infection such as strep throat with painful swallowing, fever, swollen tonsils or a rash, people should go and see their family physician. A rapid strep test can be done and if positive antibiotics should be used.”
MONCTON, N.B. – New Brunswick RCMP say two youths have been arrested after an emergency alert was issued Monday evening about someone carrying a gun in the province’s southeast.
Caledonia Region Mounties say they were first called out to Main Street in the community of Salisbury around 7 p.m. on reports of a shooting.
A 48-year-old man was found at the scene suffering from gunshot wounds and he was rushed to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Police say in the interest of public safety, they issued an Alert Ready message at 8:15 p.m. for someone driving a silver Ford F-150 pickup truck and reportedly carrying a firearm with dangerous intent in the Salisbury and Moncton area.
Two youths were arrested without incident later in the evening in Salisbury, and the alert was cancelled just after midnight Tuesday.
Police are still looking for the silver pickup truck, covered in mud, with possible Nova Scotia licence plate HDC 958. They now confirm the truck was stolen from Central Blissville.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
MISSISSAUGA, Ont. – Golf Canada has set an impressive stretch goal of having 30 professional golfers at the highest levels of the sport by 2032.
The World Junior Girls Golf Championship is a huge part of that target.
Credit Valley Golf and Country Club will host the international tournament from Sept. 30 to Oct. 5, with 24 teams representing 23 nations — Canada gets two squads — competing. Lindsay McGrath, a 17-year-old golfer from Oakville, Ont., said she’s excited to be representing Canada and continue to develop her game.
“I’m really grateful to be here,” said McGrath on Monday after a news conference in Credit Valley’s clubhouse in Mississauga, Ont. “It’s just such an awesome feeling being here and representing our country, wearing all the logos and being on Team Canada.
“I’ve always wanted to play in this tournament, so it’s really special to me.”
McGrath will be joined by Nobelle Park of Oakville, Ont., and Eileen Park of Red Deer, Alta., on Team Canada 2. All three earned their places through a qualifying tournament last month.
“I love my teammates so much,” said McGrath. “I know Nobelle and Eileen very well. I’m just so excited to be with them. We have such a great relationship.”
Shauna Liu of Maple, Ont., Calgary’s Aphrodite Deng and Clairey Lin make up Team Canada 2. Liu earned her exemption following her win at the 2024 Canadian Junior Girls Championship while Deng earned her exemption as being the low eligible Canadian on the world amateur golf ranking as of Aug. 7.
Deng was No. 175 at the time, she has since improved to No. 171 and is Canada’s lowest-ranked player.
“I think it’s a really great opportunity,” said Liu. “We don’t really get that many opportunities to play with people from across the world, so it’s really great to meet new people and play with them.
“It’s great to see maybe how they play and take parts from their game that we might also implement our own games.”
Golf Canada founded the World Junior Girls Golf Championship in 2014 to fill a void in women’s international competition and help grow its own homegrown talent. The hosts won for the first time last year when Vancouver’s Anna Huang, Toronto’s Vanessa Borovilos and Vancouver’s Vanessa Zhang won team gold and Huang earned individual silver.
Medallists who have gone on to win on the LPGA Tour include Brooke Henderson of Smiths Falls, Ont., who was fourth in the individual competition at the inaugural tournament. She was on Canada’s bronze-medal team in 2014 with Selena Costabile of Thornhill, Ont., and Calgary’s Jaclyn Lee.
Other notable competitors who went on to become LPGA Tour winners include Angel Yin and Megan Khang of the United States, as well as Yuka Saso of the Philippines, Sweden’s Linn Grant and Atthaya Thitikul of Thailand.
“It’s not if, it’s when they’re going to be on the LPGA Tour,” said Garrett Ball, Golf Canada’s chief operating officer, of how Canada’s golfers in the World Junior Girls Championship can be part of the organization’s goal to have 30 pros in the LPGA and PGA Tours by 2032.
“Events like this, like the She Plays Golf festival that we launched two years ago, and then the CPKC Women’s Open exemptions that we utilize to bring in our national team athletes and get the experience has been important in that pathway.”
The individual winner of the World Junior Girls Golf Championship will earn a berth in next year’s CPKC Women’s Open at nearby Mississaugua Golf and Country Club.
Both clubs, as well as former RBC Canadian Open host site Glen Abbey Golf Club, were devastated by heavy rains through June and July as the Greater Toronto Area had its wettest summer in recorded history.
Jason Hanna, the chief operating officer of Credit Valley Golf and Country Club, said that he has seen the Credit River flood so badly that it affected the course’s playability a handful of times over his nearly two decades with the club.
Staff and members alike came together to clean up the course after the flooding was over, with hundreds of people coming together to make the club playable again.
“You had to show up, bring your own rake, bring your own shovel, bring your own gloves, and then we’d take them down to the golf course, assign them to areas where they would work, and then we would do a big barbecue down at the halfway house,” said Hanna. “We got guys, like, 80 years old, putting in eight-hour days down there, working away.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
NEW YORK (AP) — Fenway Park has the Ted Williams seat. And now Citi Field has the Grimace seat.
The kid-friendly McDonald’s character made another appearance at the ballpark Monday, when the New York Mets unveiled a commemorative purple seat in section 302 to honor “his special connection to Mets fans.”
Wearing his pear-shaped purple costume and a baseball glove on backwards, Grimace threw out a funny-looking first pitch — as best he could with those furry fingers and short arms — before New York beat the Miami Marlins at Citi Field on June 12.
That victory began a seven-game winning streak, and Grimace the Mets’ good-luck charm soon went viral, taking on a life of its own online.
New York is 53-31 since June 12, the best record in the majors during that span. The Mets were tied with rival Atlanta for the last National League playoff spot as they opened their final homestand of the season Monday night against Washington.
The new Grimace seat in the second deck in right field — located in row 6, seat 12 to signify 6/12 on the calendar — was brought into the Shannon Forde press conference room Monday afternoon. The character posed next to the chair and with fans who strolled into the room.
The seat is available for purchase for each of the Mets’ remaining home games.
“It’s been great to see how our fanbase created the Grimace phenomenon following his first pitch in June and in the months since,” Mets senior vice president of partnerships Brenden Mallette said in a news release. “As we explored how to further capture the magic of this moment and celebrate our new celebrity fan, installing a commemorative seat ahead of fan appreciation weekend felt like the perfect way to give something back to the fans in a fun and unique way.”
Up in Boston, the famous Ted Williams seat is painted bright red among rows of green chairs deep in the right-field stands at Fenway Park to mark where a reported 502-foot homer hit by the Hall of Fame slugger landed in June 1946.
So, does this catapult Grimace into Splendid Splinter territory?
“I don’t know if we put him on the same level,” Mets executive vice president and chief marketing officer Andy Goldberg said with a grin.
“It’s just been a fun year, and at the same time, we’ve been playing great ball. Ever since the end of May, we have been crushing it,” he explained. “So I think that added to the mystique.”
