The city’s public health unit and doctors are urging people to get vaccinated against a potentially fatal bacterial disease amid a rise in cases.
Toronto Public Health (TPH) has reported 14 confirmed cases of invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) so far this year, more than double the previous average of six cases per year.
“This is a substantial increase and we’re not even halfway through the year already,” Toronto’s associate medical officer of health Dr. Vinita Dubey said in an interview.
She also noted that a strain of the disease called W-135, which is not usually common in Canada, has already proven deadly.
“We’ve had one child and one adult who have died. These are very tragic deaths,” Dubey said.
IMD is a rare but life-threatening bacterial infection that can infect the brain and spinal cord, causing meningitis, and the bloodstream, causing septicemia. Teens and infants are most likely to become infected and up to 10 per cent of all patients with IMD die, according to Health Canada.
The spread of IMD is of particular concern for health agencies right now, as summer travel gears up and large, densely populated events kick off. Doctors also note that many kids are still behind on vaccinations they missed while learning remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ontario issues warning: update kids’ vax records or face school suspension
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Tens of thousands of Ontario students are facing suspension if they don’t update their vaccination records, as the province pushes hard to get kids caught up on shots for everything from COVID-19 to chickenpox.
W-135 strain causing hospitalizations
Dubey said all five strains of IMD — A, B, C, Y and W-135 — tend to spread in Canada, but the W-135 variant in particular has hospitalized everyone who has had it recently in Toronto.
“The strain is called a hypervirulent strain, meaning that it can make you very sick,” she said. “It comes on quickly and it progresses quickly.”
The W-135 strain usually makes up 20 per cent of all cases in Toronto, but that’s increased to half this year, according to TPH.
Dr. Allison McGeer, an infectious diseases specialist at Toronto’s Mount Sinai Hospital, said the W-135 variant is commonly found in Saudi Arabia, which causes concern among health providers before and after the Hajj pilgrimage every year.
Muslims perform the Eid al-Adha morning prayer in Saudi Arabia’s holy city of Mecca, on the first day of the holiday marking the end of the Hajj pilgrimage, on June 16, 2024. The W-135 strain of IMD is common in Saudi Arabia and can be spread at crowded events, such as the annual Hajj pilgrimage, says one infectious diseases doctor. (AFP/Getty Images)
“The Hajj has so many people grouped together and meningococcal vaccines have been relatively expensive, and so they’re out of reach of many countries in the world,” McGeer said.
TPH is encouraging people returning from Saudi Arabia to watch for IMD symptoms, such as fever and headache, and to avoid sharing food and drinks as a precaution.
Dubey said someone may carry the bacteria for weeks or months before it causes severe disease.
Vaccine for B strain not publicly-funded: doctor
Ontario residents aged 18 to 38, including newcomers, who have not received IWD vaccines when they were in school, are eligible for a publicly funded meningococcal vaccine that protects against most strains of the disease.
Toronto-based family physician Dr. Vivien Brown, who also sits on the board of Immunize Canada, said the vaccine that protects against meningococcal B is not publicly funded.
“It’s not as simple as, ‘Just get your vaccine from public health,'” Brown said.
She recommends that vulnerable age groups, especially teenagers going into university this year, should consult their doctor about whether they should receive a B vaccine.
“It’s those adolescents leaving high school, getting into university, where, unfortunately, we see this killer disease,” she said.
Ontario residents aged 18 to 38 are eligible for a publicly funded meningococcal vaccine that protects against most strains of the disease. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)
Newcomers encouraged to get shot
The city’s public health unit is also encouraging newcomers to get vaccinated, as IMD shots aren’t common in many of their home countries.
“We had an outbreak of meningococcal C strain in our city in 2022 that was hitting young adults and most of those were newcomers,” Dubey said.
Those who don’t know whether they’ve received any of the IMD vaccines, should get vaccinated just in case, Brown said.
“It’s safer to get a second shot than to have missed the shot altogether,” Brown said.
Infectious disease specialist Dr. Dick Zoutman said some newcomers may not know they’re able to receive a vaccine or could be sceptical about getting one due to mistrust or misinformation.
“The critical element there is to look at providing as much information [as possible] that is appropriately developed for the audience,” Zoutman said.
He said it’s important that informational campaigns are in people’s native language and promote education.
“Many people have a very significant misunderstanding about what vaccines can do and what they can’t do and what the risks are,” he said.
“Overall, vaccines have saved an enormous number of human lives.“
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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