Sault Area Hospital has declared a parainfluenza virus 3 (HPIV-3) outbreak on 3B.
“Effective immediately, we will limit visitors to this unit to only approved essential caregivers,” the hospital said on social media.
HPIV-3 is one of a group of common viruses known as human parainfluenza viruses that can cause respiratory illnesses, including bronchiolitis, bronchitis, and pneumonia.
Symptoms may include fever, runny nose, and cough.
“Infants and young children are particularly susceptible to HPIV-3 infections, though older adults and those with a weakened immune system are also at risk for complications,” the hospital said.
“HPIVs are usually spread from an infected person to others through coughing, sneezing, and/or touching.”
All health care workers and members of the public (patients/clients and essential caregivers/visitors) are reminded to wear a mask or face covering upon entering Sault Area Hospital or SAH’s community-based locations. Hospital-approved masks will be provided at all entrances.
“Visitors and essential caregivers who feel unwell are asked to postpone visiting their loved ones until they are no longer experiencing symptoms,” the hospital said.
“If you have visited and develop symptoms, please let your loved ones care team know.”
TORONTO, Dec. 28, 2023—It’s beginning to look a lot like cold and cough season, everywhere you go. Flu, cold, COVID and RSV are all circulating together again in Ontario, the proverbial unwanted guests at our seasonal gatherings.
Ontario’s doctors have some tips for trying to stay healthy at this time of year as people spend more time indoors and in closer contact with one another.
“No one wants to be sick, especially during the holidays,” said Dr. Andrew Park, president of the Ontario Medical Association. “But this is peak season for respiratory viruses. There are some commonsense precautions people can take to reduce their risk of getting sick and reduce pressure on emergency departments and other parts of the health-care system.”
Get a seasonal flu shot, keep up to date on COVID-19 vaccinations and get an RSV shot, if you are eligible.
Avoid close contact with people who are sick and stay home if you are sick. Rapid antigen tests for COVID are available through public health units and select health-care providers. If you have symptoms, keep testing over a few days to confirm or rule out COVID.
Practice good public health hygiene: wash your hands often, sneeze or cough into your arm, not your hands, and regularly clean surfaces people touch a lot such as phones and doorknobs.
Consider masking in crowded and/or indoor public spaces – or if you are around vulnerable people. Wear a mask in public for 10 days after you are sick with any respiratory virus or were last exposed to someone with COVID
Consider opening windows and/or using air purifiers at holiday gatherings.
About the OMA
The Ontario Medical Association represents Ontario’s 43,000-plus physicians, medical students and retired physicians, advocating for and supporting doctors while strengthening the leadership role of doctors in caring for patients. Our vision is to be the trusted voice in transforming Ontario’s health-care system.
For more information, please contact:
Leslie Shepherd, OMA director of earned and social media media@oma.org
The Public Health Agency of Canada** (PHAC) said Wednesday it has stepped up funding to ensure more Canadians have access to vaccines as well as access to information that will help Canadians make informed choices on vaccinations. This includes funding directed at Science North.
PHAC said the awareness program includes continued vaccines for COVID-19, updated influenza vaccines (the flu shot) and childrens' vaccines.
Federal health minister Mark Holland announced that $9.5 million would be allocated to the federal Immunization Partnership Fund (IPF) in 2023 - 2024 to 53 organizations across Canada to provide "accurate information on the safety and effectiveness of vaccines," said a news release.
The release said $175,000 was provided to Science North in Sudbury to continue a program to increase vaccine confidence and acceptance.
"The project will deepen engagement with people living in Canada with an exciting array of virtual and in-person programs delivered in English and French across Northern Ontario and beyond," said the release.
Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam said with the arrival of cold weather, Canadians need increased vaccine protection.
"As we prepare for the fall and winter months, we need to build on the capacity and knowledge gained in the past years in protecting ourselves, our health workforce and each other," said Tam.
The health minister also commented that more awareness and conversations are needed to break through the barrier of vaccine hesitancy.
"The science is clear – vaccines save lives. Community-led projects funded through the Immunization Partnership Fund were essential to sharing credible vaccine information throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and will continue to do so well into the future," said Holland.
**Correction: An earlier version of this story attributed the initiative to Health Canada, instead of the Public Health Agency of Canada. That has been corrected.
Officers say in a media release that fentanyl is not only becoming more prevalent, but more dangerous.
“Many of these overdoses appear to be tied to the dangerous practice of cutting Fentanyl,” reads a media release from the Alberta RCMP. “In order to create a cheaper high, Fentanyl is being mixed with other substances that are easier and cheaper to access. A side effect of this mixing is that it reduces the effectiveness of naloxone, meaning more doses are needed in order to save someone’s life, if it works at all.”
Some tips to keep yourself and others safe while using illicit drugs include:
Avoid using while alone.
Ask someone to check on you, or use while on the phone with a trusted person able to call for assistance in the event of an overdose.
Know the signs and symptoms of poisoning/overdose, and call 911 for direction and support.
Carry a naloxone kit, and know how to use it to respond to a suspected opioid poisoning/overdose.
Consider using the Digital Overdose Response System app when consuming drugs.
If anyone has information about illegal activity regarding fentanyl or any other drug, please contact your local police.
If you wish to remain anonymous, you can contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS), online at www.P3Tips.com or by using the “P3 Tips” app available through the Apple App or Google Play store.
To report crime online, or for access to RCMP news and information, download the Alberta RCMP app through Apple or Google Play.
Strep throat infections are on the rise among BC children.
The BC Centre for Disease Control, Provincial Health Services Authority, and BC Childrens Hospital say in a joint statement there have been 51 cases of group A streptococcus infections this year among people under 20.
They say that’s more than twice the number from last year.
Most people recover with antibiotics, but strep infections can lead to life-threatening pneumonia or toxic shock.
Health experts say parents should monitor kids who have fevers lasting longer than five days, rashes, and difficulty breathing, which could be signs of an infection.
There has been an increase across Canada and worldwide in strep infections, with 547 cases in total this year in BC.
Gert-Jan Oskam could no longer walk after a cycling accident 12 years ago in China.
He suffered an incomplete spinal cord injury, so while he had some sensation in his lower body, he used a wheelchair after he returned home to the Netherlands.
But he wanted to be able to stand.
That's why Oskam, 40, agreed to be one of three participants in a Swiss pilot study of an experimental brain implant in 2017.
The implant would allow him not just to stand, but to walk. When he pressed a button, a processor worn in a backpack would analyze his brain signals to try to activate his leg muscles for walking.
It worked, but not completely — his gait was stiff and robotic, and his steps were delayed because they were automated.
Oskam's implant system is an upgrade on a previous version he used in a pilot project. He can now walk further, more fluidly and over uneven ground. (Nature)
Then a few years later, the researchers recruited Oskam to "test pilot" an upgraded implant system that would translate his thoughts into motion. When he thought about walking, electronic implants on his skull would pick up his brain signals, register them as instructions to move his legs, and send them to the corresponding muscles through another implant on his spine.
"You're creating a sort of digital bridge" between the brain and spinal cord, said Canadian neurosurgeon Jordan Squair. Squair treats spinal cord injuries at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, Switzerland, where work on Oskam's implant is based.
In May, the researchers reported on Oskam's progress more than a year into the study. His walking is now fluid. He can climb stairs and handle rough terrain; he can walk faster and farther; and he's able to use the technology outside the lab at his home.
"The stimulation before was controlling me, and now I'm controlling the stimulation," Oskam said in a media briefing.
In 2024, medical researchers plan a pivotal clinical trial to test the safety of the implant in more subjects. Their goal is to miniaturize the system and make the technology available worldwide.
Implants have multiple benefits
Oskam's progress and other advances in treatment of spinal cord injury — including a pioneering type of microsurgery that's now being performed in Toronto — signal a promising turning point for the field.
In Canada, more than 86,000 people live with spinal cord injury, according to Praxis Spinal Cord Institute (formerly the Rick Hansen Institute). Doctors say about half to two-thirds of those are incomplete injuries like Oskam's.
LISTEN | Digital bridge for spinal cord lets paralyzed man walk:
Quirks and Quarks8:39Digital bridge for spinal cord allows paralyzed man to walk again
Researchers in Switzerland have developed a system to restore communication between the brain and the spinal cord in a paralyzed man who was told he’d never walk again. By surgically implanting devices in the patient’s brain and spinal cord, they were able to digitally bridge the communication gap to allow him to control his legs again. Henri Lorach, the head of the brain interface unit at NeuroRestore and a neuroscientist at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, said the patient can now walk with crutches even when the device is turned off. Their research was published in the journal Nature.
Squair said linking spinal cord stimulation to help people walk better by decoding their thoughts, as Oskam's implant does, is a true technological step forward.
Not only does the approach help people with spinal cord injuries regain mobility — which they often rank as their top priority, say Squair and Praxis — but it can help people whose injuries are in the neck to control dangerous spikes in blood pressure.
"People are experiencing a lot less episodes of what we call autonomic dysreflexia — these hypertensive episodes when blood pressure goes up really high," he said.
"We found that over time, as people use the stimulation, that is starting to go away, which is really exciting because those episodes can be life-threatening."
Until now, few existing treatments have worked long-term, he said.
Venture capitalist John Ruffolo is recovering from a spinal cord injury. A new type of microsurgery helped ease the pain in his spine. (Submitted by John Ruffolo)
'You will feel this deadness'
John Ruffolo of Toronto takes a keen interest in how the field of spinal cord treatment is progressing as part of his own recovery from severe injuries.
When Ruffolo watches videos of Oskamwalk, his reaction is: "I'll be there soon."
He hasn't received an implant, though he says he would get one if he had the opportunity.
An avid cyclist, Ruffolo, 57, was riding his bike on a sunny day in September 2020. He was heading down a rural road about 50 km north of the city when he heard the screeching air brakes of a tractor-trailer coming up on his rear wheel.
He doesn't remember the pain of being hit.
After he landed, he tried to move his legs as his upper body seared with pain.
"You will feel this deadness on your body," he said. "My first reaction was, 'Oh s--t, I'm paralyzed.' I was trying to wiggle my toes, and nothing."
On impact, his pelvis split into six pieces. The force broke every rib in multiple places, collapsing a lung and taking out a kidney. Doctors said he lost 50 per cent of his blood volume.
Witnesses, paramedics and physicians expected he'd suffocate to death because of the broken ribs around his chest, which can hinder breathing.
Paramedics rushed him to Toronto's Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, a major trauma hospital.
When he made it 36 hours past the accident, doctors performed multiple surgeries to repair his pelvis and then his back, drilling vertebrae and then delicately placing rods and screws.
Each move had to be carefully planned, like removing a block from a Jenga tower, without causing more damage or even death.
Ruffolo and his wife, Carryn, were told he'd never walk again.
Asked about his reaction, Ruffolo lowers his voice to a whisper, his voice cracking.
"The issue is, never remove someone's hope, right?"
Sunnybrook's surgical team considered Ruffolo to have a complete injury of the spinal cord, which traditionally has a guarded prognosis.
The surgeon had to leave several large bone fragments floating in his spinal fluid because they were located in an area that made them too risky to remove. Ruffolo said his spinal cord felt like it was being squeezed and bruised.
A few weeks later, he met with neurosurgeon Michael Fehlings at the Krembil Brain Institute at Toronto's University Health Network. Fehlings told Ruffolo he could remove the fragments with a type of microsurgery called decompression surgery.
Dr. Michael Fehlings, a neurosurgeon with Toronto's University Health Network, says new international guidelines on spinal cord injury coming out in 2024 will highlight the benefits of early decompression surgery. (Submitted by Michael Fehlings)
Fehlings told him the surgery could help relieve the squeezing to improve his odds for a significant recovery, but there were risks.
"I looked at him and I said, 'Dude, I'm a VC,'" said Ruffolo — a venture capitalist in the tech industry. "I make investments when there's a one per cent chance. I didn't even flinch, and I said, 'Do it.'"
Ruffolo, founder and managing partner of Maverix Private Equity, now does 18 to 20 hours of intense physiotherapy a week. He can walk with a walker, walking poles or on a treadmill.
"You just gotta keep on going," he said.
"I'm not stopping until I walk independently."
Patient's recovery 'gratifying' for surgeon
Ruffolo is also able to ride again using modified recumbent and upright bikes. When he shares video of his rides with Fehlings today, it inspires the physician.
"While the injury presented huge challenges to him, where he's at now and where he might have been without the decompressive surgery, I think is quite striking," Fehlings said. "That's very gratifying for me to see."
WATCH | Rick Hansen reflects on rehabilitation journey:
Rick Hansen reflects on rehabilitation journey 50 years after crash
1 month ago
Duration 3:13
Premier David Eby joined Rick Hansen and health officials at the G.F. Strong Rehabilitation Centre in Vancouver to mark Hansen's 50 years of spinal cord injury rehabilitation, and to present the Difference Maker Awards to those who have helped him on his road to recovery.
But Fehlings, who is also a professor at the University of Toronto and a clinician scientist, notes that Oskam's and Ruffolo's injuries should be kept in perspective: not every patient will respond as well to treatments because no two patients are identical in the degree and location of their spinal injury. It also helps that both patients were physically active before and after their accidents.
Not everyone with a spinal cord injury is keen to receive implant technology, either, Fehlings said, although he added it is possible the Swiss implant could help Ruffolo's motor recovery.
"The technology was really quite remarkable," Fehlings said. He isn't involved in the experimental device but sees how it could fit in with efforts in restorative and regenerative medicine.
Another thing giving him optimism is the set of international guidelines on treating spinal cord injury, created with Canadian input, that is set to be published in early 2024. They include evidence on the benefits of early surgical decompression to reduce pain, improve mobility and manage other symptoms like bowel and bladder control.
"We're really on the cusp right now of a remarkable era in regenerative neuroscience," Fehlings said.
Alcohol misuse, coming from a lower socioeconomic background, loneliness and having a hearing impairment are among 15 factors found to significantly increase the risk of early-onset dementia, according to a “groundbreaking” study.
Almost 4 million people worldwide experience dementia symptoms before they are 65, with 370,000 people newly diagnosed each year.
While previous research has found that lifestyle changes can cut the risk of dementia among older people, the authors of the new study said this was the first finding that suggested the risk of early-onset dementia could be reduced in the same way.
The study looked at 350,000 under-65s who were part of the UK Biobank study. Researchers from the universities of Exeter and Maastricht examined what could affect a person’s predisposition to early-onset dementia, including genetic, lifestyle and environmental factors.
They found 15 factors that significantly increased the risk, including a lower formal education or lower socioeconomic status, health factors such as vitamin D deficiency, hearing impairment and depression, and lifestyle factors such as alcoholism and social isolation.
“Our study identified 15 lifestyle and health-related factors that were associated with young onset dementia incidence,” the researchers said.
“While further exploration of these risk factors is necessary to identify potential underlying mechanisms, addressing these modifiable factors may prove effective in mitigating the risk of developing young onset dementia and can be readily integrated in current dementia prevention initiatives.”
Dementia is one of the biggest illnesses facing UK health infrastructure, and a study last month suggests that 1.7 million people in the UK could have the condition by 2040. In Britain, about 900,000 people are living with dementia, while more than 70,800 are living with early-onset dementia.
Sebastian Köhler, a professor of neuroepidemiology at Maastricht University and one of the lead authors of the research, said: “We already knew from research on people who develop dementia at older age that there are a series of modifiable risk factors.
“In addition to physical factors, mental health also plays an important role, including avoiding chronic stress, loneliness and depression. The fact that this is also evident in young-onset dementia came as a surprise to me, and it may offer opportunities to reduce risk in this group too.”
Dr Janice Ranson, a senior research fellow at the University of Exeter, said that the research “breaks new ground in identifying that the risk of young-onset dementia can be reduced”.
She added: “We think this could herald a new era in interventions to reduce new cases of this condition.”
Dr Leah Mursaleen, the head of clinical research at Alzheimer’s Research UK, which co-funded the study, said: “We’re witnessing a transformation in understanding of dementia risk and, potentially, how to reduce it on an individual and societal level.
“In recent years, there’s been a growing consensus that dementia is linked to 12 specific modifiable risk factors such as smoking, blood pressure and hearing loss. It’s now accepted that up to four in 10 dementia cases worldwide are linked to these factors.
“This pioneering study shines important and much-needed light on factors that can influence the risk of young-onset dementia. This starts to fill in an important gap in our knowledge. It will be important to build on these findings in broader studies.”
