Doctor with Hamilton ties, 1st Black man at White House reception, among ‘courageous’ Civil War surgeons

Health Fitness

More than 100 years after his death, Anderson Ruffin Abbott’s visit to the White House and his relationship with President Abraham Lincoln continue to fascinate people. Abbott, a man of notable firsts, is included in Jill L. Newmark’s book Without Concealment, Without Compromise: The Courageous Lives of Black Civil War Surgeons. In addi

B.C.’s provincial health officer champions kindness on 5-year anniversary of province’s 1st COVID case

Health Fitness

On Jan. 28, 2020, Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry held a news conference announcing B.C.’s first confirmed case of COVID-19, setting into motion what would be months of public health restrictions and uncertainty amid the world’s worst pandemic in over a century. Five years later, Henry is reflecting on the “collective t

Public Health Agency not renewing contracts of over 800 employees, including 245 at Winnipeg lab: union

Health Fitness

The union representing workers with the Public Health Agency of Canada says the federal government is not renewing the contracts of over 800 employees, including at least 245 at the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg.  Shimen Fayad, national president of the Union of Health and Environment Workers, told Radio-Canada in an email the health

Endless diarrhea and exhaustion: the stomach bug making the rounds among the most vulnerable in Canada

Health Fitness

For the past five weeks, Toronto night nurse Keren Elumir has been handing out clean underwear and electrolyte packets at a safe consumption and overdose prevention site in Moss Park. She’s been seeing more and more people with the telltale signs of a Shigella infection, also known as shigellosis: diarrhea, stomach cramps and fever. Toronto [

Canada has a doctor shortage, but thousands of foreign-trained physicians already here still face barriers

Health Fitness

This story is part of Welcome to Canada, a CBC News series about immigration told through the eyes of the people who have experienced it. Ismelda Ramirez says she never expected to swap her white doctor’s coat for a McDonald’s uniform. Despite training as a family doctor in the Dominican Republic, she ended up working at the […]

‘We’re seeing a Hunger Games’ across Ontario: Hundreds in this town line up for a chance at a family doctor

Health Fitness

They started to arrive, and the line began to form, as early as 2 a.m. Despite a steady snowfall and bone-chilling cold, they came to stand outside and wait their turn, hours before the doors opened at 10 a.m.  This wasn’t a queue to purchase Taylor Swift concert tickets at a kiosk in downtown Toronto. This line was […]

Can fentanyl exposure lead to overdose? Despite cases of police sent to hospital, research says it’s unlikely

Health Fitness

Over the past month in Ontario, officers with three different police agencies were taken to hospital following exposure to fentanyl — but research suggests exposure to the drug carries little danger, and some advocates warn misconceptions about the risk can have their own harmful consequences. On Sunday, police in Durham Region said an officer was

This boy hurt in collision didn’t have an Indian status card, so Ottawa wouldn’t pay for medical evacuation

Health Fitness

The family of a seven-year-old boy from Deer Lake First Nation who was denied medical transportation coverage because he didn’t yet have an Indian status card is calling for changes to Ottawa’s Non-Insured Health Benefits (NIHB) program. Jordan Harper was seriously injured, and his grandmother died, in January in a head-on collision wit

Cancer brings emotional anguish, harsh treatments — and a financial toll on patients, families: report

Health Fitness

During her cancer treatment, Vanessa Percoco felt forced to choose between paying to feel better or making rent. Percoco, 33, of Laval, Que., had just started on a short contract working with some Grade 3 students with special needs. A diagnosis of advanced colorectal cancer in 2022 put those plans on hold. During more than two years of treatment,

She fought for a raise 26 years ago. ‘Absurd’ delays mean practical nurses at Niagara Health are still waiting

Health Fitness

When Sandra Commerford asked for a raise from a St. Catharines, Ont., hospital in 1998, the registered practical nurse (RPN) was confident she had a strong, open and shut case. Commerford and upwards of 100 other RPNs had started administering medication to patients — a new responsibility that required months of additional training, transformed the

What Canada does to monitor H5N1 avian flu

Health Fitness

A teenager diagnosed with bird flu in British Columbia is the first domestically acquired human case of H5N1 avian influenza, the Public Health Agency of Canada says.  Since Influenza A or flu viruses are named after the animal where they are most commonly found, avian viruses are naturally found in birds. H5N1 is a highly transmissible […]

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