Quebec coroner calls for more safeguards on Benadryl to prevent abuse
Quebec's coroner's office is recommending safety measures for allergy medication Benadryl after the death of an 18-year-old man.
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CTV News
17 minutes ago
- CTV News
Ontario summer camps sharing measles protocols as kids get set to head off
In this file photo, counsellors and campers walk to closing campfire, Thursday, June 20, 2024, at YMCA Camp Kern in Oregonia, Ohio. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel) As many kids prepare to head off to summer activities, summer camps are sharing their plans to keep kids safe amid a measles outbreak in the province. Ontario has been grappling with an outbreak of the highly contagious illness since October. According to the latest data from Public Health Ontario, there have been more than 2,100 cases so far. Measles is a highly contagious disease that can cause serious illness and even death in some children. Most of those who have contracted the illness in the latest outbreak have been unvaccinated, public health officials have said. Most of the cases have been in Southwestern Ontario. Waterloo Region recently told CTV news that protocols for its summer camps this season include isolating unvaccinated campers or staff for 21 days if there is an exposure, or until they can prove they've had two doses of a vaccine. Howie Grossinger co-owns two Ontario summer camps -- Camp Robin Hood in Markham and Camp Walden in Palmer Rapids. Speaking with CP24 Friday, Grossinger said that his camps have been heeding public health guidance and working to educate campers and staff. 'We've really educated our entire camp community about the expectations of being fully vaccinated, (and) the implications for campers and staff, should they not be fully vaccinated,' Grossinger said. He said the camp has been collecting vaccination records from those who will be attending camp this summer so that they are able to quickly work with public health officials to minimize spread in case there is an exposure. While campers are not required to be vaccinated in order to attend camp, they would have to go home if there were an exposure, as per public health guidance. 'The response has been great. Parents have been sharing our vigilance on this,' Grossinger said. 'Safety and risk management are of the utmost importance, and we also are educating or re-educating families, given our COVID experience, to the signs of illness; flu-like, symptoms, rashes, etc.' He said health staff at camp are also receiving training about how to be vigilant for signs of the measles, and staff will be communicating with campers regularly to quickly detect if anyone is feeling unwell. 'At the end of the day, we want the experience of camp – the fun, the education and really the lifelong skills that happen at camp – to be the priority, while always maintaining vigilance on all the health and safety stuff that I know parents and us as operators are so concerned with.'
CTV News
an hour ago
- CTV News
Alberta surpasses 1,000 measles cases, second province to do so
Vials of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine are seen in this file photo. Alberta is the second province in Canada to count 1,000 measles cases this year, having crossed the threshold on Friday. With 24 new cases in as many hours, Alberta now has confirmed 1,020 cases of measles. As of Friday, 25 were considered active, or communicable, cases. No deaths have been reported. Ontario's total number of cases crossed 1,000 in late April and currently sits at nearly 2,180. Together, Alberta and Ontario account for more than 90 per cent of measles cases in the country. CTV News Edmonton has reached out to the Primary and Preventative Health Services' ministry for comment. In an interview last week, Dr. Chris Siroka, lead medical officer of health for the Edmonton zone, applauded the cooperation by all levels of Alberta's government and health system to promote immunization, educate the public about symptoms, and provide access to testing. 'Those steps are the good steps to take around prevention and around rapid contact identification,' Siroka told CTV News Edmonton. 'Rapid case identification and contact tracing is what will help stop transmission or help reduce transmission events… and that same work is happening in Edmonton as it is happening in Calgary and every other corner of the province.' However, one of the province's former chief medical officers of health, Dr. James Talbot, said the milestone suggests a grim outlook for the summer and fall, during which measles cases will likely rise not only in Alberta but also neighbouring provinces and territories due to summer travel. Then, Talbot expects Canada will lose its measles elimination status in October, which it achieved in 1998. Alberta reaching 1,000 measles cases also means that Alberta will begin to see more serious outcomes, like death, brain damage and miscarriages. Talbot said, 'If the measures were working, we'd see the numbers going down and we wouldn't see spread to new areas. And both of those are happening.' He expects cities and areas such as Edmonton that have so far avoided high measles cases will not fare as well in the summer. The Edmonton zone on Friday saw its first new measles cases since early May, one day after Alberta Health Services issued a warning about two measles exposures in the capital city. According to the government, between one and three people out of every 1,000 diagnosed with measles die. One in 1,000 diagnosed with measles will get encephalitis. Measles is considered preventable with immunization. Two doses of a vaccine makes a person nearly fully protected. Ninety-five per cent of a population needs to be immunized for herd immunity.
CBC
an hour ago
- CBC
Applications open for Canada's new disability benefit program
Canada's new disability benefit — a program that provides eligible people with up to $200 a month — is now open for applications. The program is available to people with disabilities between the ages of 18 and 64 who already have been approved for the disability tax credit. The government says payments are set to begin in July. The payments are meant to supplement provincial and territorial programs, and Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu said all provinces and territories except for Alberta have pledged not to claw back their own benefits. The benefit was part of the Trudeau Liberal government's promise to help lift people with disabilities out of poverty. Many advocates for people with disabilities have panned the benefit, saying it will do little to actually address poverty. Hajdu, whose new portfolio covers disabilities, said she has heard that criticism. "I don't think that disability [benefit] is what a person needs to sustain themselves, and I don't think it was designed in that way," she said in a recent interview. "But it is a payment that allows for a fuller autonomy of people with disabilities in that it's not directed towards any specific thing. It is a benefit that people can use to supplement whatever other earnings or income that they have." As part of the program, the government is providing funding to community organizations to help people who may need guidance on applying for the tax credit or the benefit program.
