Health
The future of COVID-19: What we learned in 2022 and what we can expect in the new year
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DENVER — Another year is putting us further from the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, as 2022 provided additional solutions. Chief medical officer Dr. Jaya Kumar at Denver’s Swedish Medical Center has been at the forefront of this virus since its inception.
“We’ve seen an evolution, not just in the virus itself, but in the way we think of COVID-19 as an illness and the way we treat it, the way we diagnose it and how we look forward to the new year,” Kumar said. “Now we have rapid sequencing of viral genomes. So any virus you see, you could sequence it, duplicate it, make a treatment or a vaccine against it; that is huge.”
She points to some of the biggest advances made in 2022.
“We saw a new antiretroviral drug come in like paxlovid, which is a pill which you can give as an outpatient,” Kumar said.
That is something Dr. Scott Joy, the chief medical officer of HealthOne’s Physician Services Group, says has kept patients out of the hospital.
“On a weekly basis, we’re doing, myself personally, about six to 10 prescriptions of paxlovid a week, and I have yet to see a patient whose been admitted really in the last six months of 2022,” Joy said.
The last year has also expanded experts’ knowledge.
“So, for example, so we are seeing an RSV or Flu serge. Things have become like a piece of cake for us. We know what to do,” Kumar said. “And we had our surge protocol ready in 30 minutes while this would have taken us hours and hours of hard work two years ago.”
However, while these successes are worth celebrating, both doctors say it’s essential to acknowledge the hurdles.
“I think one of the challenges moving forward after the pandemic is patients’ trust in the vaccines,” Joy said. “I’m just a little concerned that vaccines are the tip of the iceberg and are going to start getting questions about data around cancer screenings and questioning about cholesterol medicines to reduce risk of heart attack and stroke and I think we’ve opened up a little bit of a pandora’s box.”
Health care staffing has become an issue too.
“I think the biggest challenge we have moving forward is really the workforce. I think that’s going to be a big challenge for us in the next year or two,” Joy said.
These experts emphasize that people are still not caught up on necessary medical exams and screenings, which could lead to more significant health complications.
“I do think we’ve held back, and we are still seeing people come in with advance stages of illnesses. We still see people in the hospitals who have postponed medical care,” Kumar said. “I think we need to do a lot of catching up in the next few years.”
We must pinpoint where we currently stand with COVID-19 to understand what is next.
“The concept of never getting COVID is something that we need to get over,” Joy said.
“We could potentially enter into an endemic stage, but that’ll take some time. An endemic stage is where you see predictable surges like flu,” Kumar said. “But for now, I think people still need to be on their watch and make sure you are getting your vaccines.”
The years to come will allow us to be more informed on the effects of the COVID-19 virus.
“We’re still in the infancy stages of this pandemic. Although it seems like it’s been years but long-term effects are still unknown,” Kumar said. “So the next few years, we’ll be building upon the technology, investing more in basic science research, and be better prepared for any more pandemics that we may see in the future.”
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Grande Prairie RCMP issued a warning Friday after it was revealed fentanyl linked to a deadly overdose was mixed with a chemical that doesn’t respond to naloxone treatment.
The drugs were initially seized on Feb. 28 after a fatal overdose, and this week, Health Canada reported back to Mounties that the fentanyl had been mixed with Bromazolam, which is a benzodiazepine.
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Mounties say this is the first recorded instance of Bromazolam in Alberta. The drug has previously been linked to nine fatal overdoses in New Brunswick in 2022.
The pills seized in Alberta were oval-shaped and stamped with “20” and “SS,” though Mounties say it can come in other forms.
Naloxone treatment, given in many cases of opioid toxicity, is not effective in reversing the effects of Bromazalam, Mounties said, and therefore, any fentanyl mixed with the benzodiazepine “would see a reduced effectiveness of naloxone, requiring the use of additional doses and may still result in a fatality.”
From January to November of last year, there were 1,706 opioid-related deaths in Alberta, and 57 linked to benzodiazepine, up from 1,375 and 43, respectively, in 2022.
Mounties say officers responded to about 1,100 opioid-related calls for service, last year with a third of those proving fatal. RCMP officers also used naloxone 67 times while in the field, a jump of nearly a third over the previous year.
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Health
CFIA continues surveillance for HPAI in cattle, while sticking with original name for disease – RealAgriculture
The Canada Food Inspection Agency will continue to refer to highly pathogenic avian influenza in cattle as HPAI in cattle, and not refer to it as bovine influenza A virus (BIAV), as suggested by the American Association of Bovine Practitioners earlier this month.
Dr. Martin Appelt, senior director for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, in the interview below, says at this time Canada will stick with “HPAI in cattle” when referencing the disease that’s been confirmed in dairy cattle in multiple states in the U.S.
The CFIA’s naming policy is consistent with the agency’s U.S. counterparts’, as the U.S. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has also said it will continue referring to it as HPAI or H5N1.
Appelt explains how the CFIA is learning from the U.S. experience to-date, and how it is working with veterinarians across Canada to stay vigilant for signs of the disease in dairy and beef cattle.
As of April 19, there has not been a confirmed case of HPAI in cattle in Canada. Appelt says it’s too soon to say if an eventual positive case will significantly restrict animal movement, as is the case with positive poultry cases.
This is a major concern for the cattle industry, as beef cattle especially move north and south across the U.S. border by the thousands. Appelt says that CFIA will address an infection in each species differently in conjunction with how the disease is spread and the threat to neighbouring farms or livestock.
Currently, provincial dairy organizations have advised producers to postpone any non-essential tours of dairy barns, as a precaution, in addition to other biosecurity measures to reduce the risk of cattle contracting HPAI.
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Health
Toronto reports 2 more measles cases. Use our tool to check the spread in Canada – Toronto Star
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Canada has seen a concerning rise in measles cases in the first months of 2024.
By the third week of March, the country had already recorded more than three times the number of cases as all of last year. Canada had just 12 cases of measles in 2023, up from three in 2022.
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