Health
Vaccination, current widespread Omicron transmission in B.C. could make for a 'much more gentle summer' in 2022 – BC News – Castanet.net
British Columbia could be in a good place when it comes to the COVID-19 pandemic come this summer, due to widespread vaccination and the current transmission of the Omicron variant throughout much of society, according to Dr. Bonnie Henry.
During Friday’s press conference, Dr. Henry announced a new approach to handling the pandemic in the province, as the rapid spread of the Omicron variant has made contact tracing an ineffective measure to slow transmission.
She also presented new data from recent B.C. COVID hospitalizations that show for most people who are vaccinated for the virus, the Omicron variant present a “negligible” risk of serious illness and hospitalization.
“I absolutely recognize this is a shift and it means we have to change our way of thinking that we have been working on so intently together for the last two years,” Dr. Henry said. “But we are all familiar with these new measures, they’re much more like how we manage other respiratory illnesses.
“We cannot eliminate all risk and I think that’s something we need to understand and accept as this virus has changed and has become part of what we will be living with for years to come.”
Looking towards the future, Dr. Henry said she believes we’ll be living with the virus for years to come, but historically, respiratory viruses tend to reduce in severity as it mutates.
“I do hope that we will end up with another coronavirus that causes mostly mild illness, but it may be that people who are in that older age group or people who have immune-compromising conditions will need to have periodic boosters,” she said.
“And it may be that most of us who’ve now had the three doses won’t need to have periodic boosters. Those are the things that we don’t yet know, but those are possibilities that we need to start thinking about now.”
With unprecedented levels of transmission across the province in recent weeks, which is likely undercounted by the daily case counts as government PCR testing has been overwhelmed, Dr. Henry said many people will have stronger immunity to the virus moving forward, when combined with vaccination.
“Because of the amount of transmission we’ve seen and the amount of immunity that we’ve developed from vaccination and from the transmission of Omicron, we’re probably going to have a much more gentle summer than we’ve had for the last two summers,” she said. “So that will be good, and then we’ll have to prepare ourselves for whatever comes next in the fall.”
She also noted that further evidence has shown that the six-month interval between second and third doses of the vaccine appear to provide better long-term protection to the virus.
“We’ve maintained that six-month interval [between second and third doses] because we’ve had ongoing evidence and increasing evidence that that gives us longer lasting protection, so that is going to help for whatever comes next,” she said.
“Because there will be something next. I do believe we are going to be living with this virus.”
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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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