This year’s holiday season is the first since mandatory pandemic public health measures have been lifted.
While full of fun, the holidays may become a vehicle for the transmission of illnesses in the midst of a busy respiratory virus season, with RSV, influenza and COVID-19 filling the air beside the holiday cheer. Doctors are urging people to be vigilant and take steps to keep loved ones healthy while celebrating.
“We know that people are eager to spend time with friends and family again after more than two years of pandemic restrictions, but we urge everyone to think about where they will be and who will be there,” said Ontario Medical Association president Dr. Rose Zacharias. The OMA represents more than 43,000 physicians, medical students and retired physicians.
Across the country, hospitals are filling up due to a triple threat of viruses that have been circulating earlier than usual, with at least two Ontario hospitals cancelling surgeries and one calling in the Red Cross for help amid a flood of sick kids. Adult ICUs have opened their doors to teenagers to free up space for younger children, while some kids are being shipped hundreds of kilometres from their homes to receive intensive care.
At the same time, at least three children have died following a Strep A infection, a group of bacteria that cause many diseases that range in severity, including strep throat, sinus infections, skin wounds or infections, fever and rash, or scarlet fever.
With this backdrop, the OMA is urging people gathering for the holidays to keep safe and prevent the spread of illnesses.
“Take precautions that will protect the most vulnerable people you will be with,” said Zacharias.
To reduce the risk when seeing loved ones, the OMA suggests getting a flu shot and all COVID-19 boosters you are eligible for, and wearing a mask in indoor public spaces like stores and public transit, and when near older folks or people with health concerns or other vulnerabilities.
OMA also suggests washing your hands frequently, as well as washing frequently touched surfaces like counters or desks, monitoring yourself daily for symptoms of COVID, the flu and RSV in children, and staying home if you’re feeling sick.
Symptoms of RSV include coughing, sneezing, runny noses, difficulty taking in food, low energy and low hydration. Parents might be able to hear the virus affect their children’s lungs, similar to that of Rice Krispies in the chest. COVID and influenza may present similar symptoms, like a sore throat, fever and cough.
“We all have a part to play in keeping our communities safe and not putting extra pressure on the health-care system,” said Zacharias.
Some Ontario doctors have started offering a free shot that can protect babies from respiratory syncytial virus while Quebec will begin its immunization program next month.
The new shot called Nirsevimab gives babies antibodies that provide passive immunity to RSV, a major cause of serious lower respiratory tract infections for infants and seniors, which can cause bronchiolitis or pneumonia.
Ontario’s ministry of health says the shot is already available at some doctor’s offices in Ontario with the province’s remaining supply set to arrive by the end of the month.
Quebec will begin administering the shots on Nov. 4 to babies born in hospitals and delivery centers.
Parents in Quebec with babies under six months or those who are older but more vulnerable to infection can also book immunization appointments online.
The injection will be available in Nunavut and Yukon this fall and winter, though administration start dates have not yet been announced.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2024.
-With files from Nicole Ireland
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Polio cases are rising ahead of a new vaccination campaign in Pakistan, where violence targeting health workers and the police protecting them has hampered years of efforts toward making the country polio-free.
Since January, health officials have confirmed 39 new polio cases in Pakistan, compared to only six last year, said Anwarul Haq of the National Emergency Operation Center for Polio Eradication.
The new nationwide drive starts Oct. 28 with the aim to vaccinate at least 32 million children. “The whole purpose of these campaigns is to achieve the target of making Pakistan a polio-free state,” he said.
Pakistan regularly launches campaigns against polio despite attacks on the workers and police assigned to the inoculation drives. Militants falsely claim the vaccination campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children.
Most of the new polio cases were reported in the southwestern Balochistan and southern Sindh province, following by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and eastern Punjab province.
The locations are worrying authorities since previous cases were from the restive northwest bordering Afghanistan, where the Taliban government in September suddenly stopped a door-to-door vaccination campaign.
Afghanistan and Pakistan are the two countries in which the spread of the potentially fatal, paralyzing disease has never been stopped. Authorities in Pakistan have said that the Taliban’s decision will have major repercussions beyond the Afghan border, as people from both sides frequently travel to each other’s country.
The World Health Organization has confirmed 18 polio cases in Afghanistan this year, all but two in the south of the country. That’s up from six cases in 2023. Afghanistan used a house-to-house vaccination strategy this June for the first time in five years, a tactic that helped to reach the majority of children targeted, according to WHO.
Health officials in Pakistan say they want the both sides to conduct anti-polio drives simultaneously.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions of people with private health insurance would be able to pick up over-the-counter methods like condoms, the “morning after” pill and birth control pills for free under a new rule the White House proposed on Monday.
Right now, health insurers must cover the cost of prescribed contraception, including prescription birth control or even condoms that doctors have issued a prescription for. But the new rule would expand that coverage, allowing millions of people on private health insurance to pick up free condoms, birth control pills, or “morning after” pills from local storefronts without a prescription.
The proposal comes days before Election Day, as Vice President Kamala Harris affixes her presidential campaign to a promise of expanding women’s health care access in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to undo nationwide abortion rights two years ago. Harris has sought to craft a distinct contrast from her Republican challenger, Donald Trump, who appointed some of the judges who issued that ruling.
“The proposed rule we announce today would expand access to birth control at no additional cost for millions of consumers,” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement. “Bottom line: women should have control over their personal health care decisions. And issuers and providers have an obligation to comply with the law.”
The emergency contraceptives that people on private insurance would be able to access without costs include levonorgestrel, a pill that needs to be taken immediately after sex to prevent pregnancy and is more commonly known by the brand name “Plan B.”
Without a doctor’s prescription, women may pay as much as $50 for a pack of the pills. And women who delay buying the medication in order to get a doctor’s prescription could jeopardize the pill’s effectiveness, since it is most likely to prevent a pregnancy within 72 hours after sex.
If implemented, the new rule would also require insurers to fully bear the cost of the once-a-day Opill, a new over-the-counter birth control pill that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved last year. A one-month supply of the pills costs $20.
Federal mandates for private health insurance to cover contraceptive care were first introduced with the Affordable Care Act, which required plans to pick up the cost of FDA-approved birth control that had been prescribed by a doctor as a preventative service.
The proposed rule would not impact those on Medicaid, the insurance program for the poorest Americans. States are largely left to design their own rules around Medicaid coverage for contraception, and few cover over-the-counter methods like Plan B or condoms.
