Wildlife officials in Alaska have confirmed the first known case of a polar bear that died from avian flu — highlighting growing concerns about the H5N1 strain’s potential spread among northern mammals.  Dr. Robert Gerlach, Alaska’s state veterinarian, said the young bear’s carcass was recently found by a biologist working in the

An Ontario woman who became ill after eating cantaloupe is the lead plaintiff in a second proposed class-action lawsuit filed over cantaloupe-linked salmonella infections across the country. A statement of claim filed in the Court of King’s Bench in Manitoba says Sarnia, Ont. resident Michele Lee Gagne had abdominal cramps, diarrhea and vomit

Pfizer said on Wednesday that Canada’s health regulator approved its gene therapy for the treatment of a rare inherited bleeding disorder called hemophilia B ahead of a U.S. decision. The approval was based on late-stage trials that showed a single dose of the therapy, to be sold under the brand name Beqvez, was superior to […]

An accomplished Windsor, Ont., track and field coach is encouraging people to take up winter running as a way to get fitter in the new year. Kurt Downes, a PhD candidate in kinesiology at the University of Windsor, co-authored an article on the topic with associate professor Kevin Milne that appears in The Conversation.  “I […]

A growing number of psychiatrists and psychologists in B.C. say they’re successfully treating patients by harnessing the power of patients’ own brain waves. Neurofeedback treatment has been studied for several decades but remains controversial among scholars. “This debate has been going on for a long time,” said Simon Fraser

Health Health Canada announced a recall of certain Enfamil brand baby formula products on Monday, citing contamination of Cronobacter sakazakii. Consumers advised to dispose of Nutramigen A+ LGG Hypoallergenic products CBC News · Posted: Jan 01, 2024 8:03 PM EST | Last Updated: 11 hours ago The Canadian Food Inspection Agency says the Enfamil brand

Inside the lab at Olive Fertility Centre in Vancouver, hundreds of unfertilized human eggs are nesting in round tanks full of cold liquid nitrogen. For some, the frozen eggs could fulfil dreams of parenthood in years to come. “Honestly, I’m so grateful for science,” said Natalie Grunberg-Ferreira, 47, who conceived two sons from t

Steven Theriault is convinced he has the solution to an urgent global public health threat — antibiotic resistance. But he can’t get his bacteria-killing viruses approved through what he calls Canada’s rigid and outdated regulatory system. “The next big focus in science is actually genetics and live organisms. … I think we’r

A British Columbia Supreme Court Justice has granted a temporary injunction against the B.C. NDP government’s legislation banning all drug use in a wide range of public spaces, pausing the law three days before it was set to come into force. The B.C. Restricting Public Consumption of Illegal Substances Act passed in early November and was set

Letters have started to arrive in the mailboxes of Canadian seniors inviting them to sign up for free dental care, but those who provide the services say they’re concerned whether the program will be administratively and financially viable for them to take part. “If our questions aren’t answered and our concerns aren’t addre

The rising value of gold worldwide has amplified illegal mining in the Amazon, where liquid mercury is being dumped in the Amazon River, and causing scientists to warn that Indigenous communities and the environment could pay a far greater price. Three weeks ago, Colombia, Brazil and the United States partnered to destroy 19 illegal gold […]

A narrow, winding corridor at Vancouver’s St. Paul’s Hospital leads to a clinic offering quick access to addiction treatment for people seeking help on their own or after a referral from an emergency room, a family doctor or social worker. Nurses and physicians at the Rapid Access Addiction Clinic see people with severe dependence on [&

Health Technology originally designed to help people with diabetes manage their blood sugar levels has joined the wearables trend. Data likely won’t improve health of people who don’t have diabetes or pre-diabetes: experts A woman testing glucose level with a Continuous Glucose Monitor. The devices were developed for people with diabetes but

BlendJet is recalling millions of portable blenders over laceration and fire hazards after receiving dozens of reports of injuries, U.S. regulators said Thursday. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) says the recall covers about 4.8 million blenders in the U.S. and about 117,000 were sold in Canada. BlendJet 2 Portable Blenders can ov

Toronto The twins were born in March 2022 in Toronto, at a combined weight of 750 grams, or 1.65 pounds. They now hold a Guinness World Record, but more importantly, they’ve alive — and will soon celebrate their second birthday. The Nadaraja twins were born in March 2022, weighing a combined 750 grams, or 1.65 […]

At his clinic in a northern suburb of Mumbai, Dr. Pralhad Prabhudesai stared at an X-ray, flipped through a chart and quickly fired a string of questions at the patient standing before him.  “Are you around pigeons often? What else are you exposed to?”  The pulmonologist is part of a group of doctors working in India’s […]

Canadians raced to get vaccinated against COVID-19 in the first years of the pandemic, but data suggests there’s far less of a rush to get the latest shots available this fall. Federal figures show only 15 per cent of the population aged five and up had received an updated vaccine by Dec. 3. And while older […]

Manitoba’s health minister and chief provincial public health officer made a plea to health-care workers to consider picking up shifts over the holidays, with intensive care units already stretched and an increase in respiratory illnesses expected over the holidays. During a hastily called Saturday afternoon news conference at the Manitoba Le

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 […]

Canada’s first-ever South Asian physician died at 92 in New Westminster, B.C., last Sunday. Dr. Gurdev Singh Gill made history in 1958 when he became the first Indo-Canadian physician, according to the B.C. government. Gill moved to Canada from India in 1949 at a time when the Canadian Encyclopedia estimates there were only about 2,000 South

On Jan. 18, 1998, Kent Dooley sat across from a brilliant pediatric pathologist with a devoted following at Halifax’s IWK Grace children’s and maternity hospital and told him he was fired. The move by Dooley, the head of pathology and laboratory services, was bewildering to many outside the division. “‘I sure hope you have a

This is Part 2 of an in-depth look at changes to a leading child and youth mental health clinic in Hamilton, and the impact they’ve had on families and mental health practitioners. Read Part 1 here. When registered psychotherapist Louise Oke shared an article on her Facebook page about toxic workplaces, she figured others who […]

This First Person column is written by Glenn Deir, a retired journalist who lives in St. John’s. For more information about CBC’s First Person stories, please see the FAQ. I was a six-pack-a-day man for five months. Not beer — god no. I haven’t touched alcohol of any kind since early summer. My six-pack was […]

When Trudy Goold received a cost-of-living increase to her Canada Pension Plan disability payments earlier this year, she felt a sense of relief. But it didn’t last long.  The increase of $66 per month was then deducted from her provincial disability support payment, leaving her right where she started.  “It’s kind of like, ‘

The Public Health Agency of Canada is reporting another death from a salmonella outbreak involving cantaloupes, bringing the total to seven. The agency says there have so far been 164 lab-confirmed cases of salmonella in eight provinces linked to Malichita and Rudy brand cantaloupes. Quebec has been hardest hit, with 111 of those cases. There have

Testing of the mysterious respiratory illness affecting dogs across the United States has not yet revealed any new pathogens or any common cause for the wave of infections that have alarmed pet owners, the agriculture department said. Instead, common causes of canine infectious respiratory disease have been identified in many of these cases through

A Winnipeg man who was misdiagnosed with a fatal disease by two different doctors says anybody believed to have a life-threatening condition should be sent to a specialist in the field for final determination. A neurologist at Sunnybrook Hospital agrees. Fredrik Bergstrom, 51, went to see his family physician in March after developing a limp and nu

This is Part 1 of an in-depth look at changes to a leading child and youth mental health clinic in Hamilton, and the impact they’ve had on families and mental health practitioners.  Warning: This story mentions suicidal ideation. A Hamilton woman says her daughter’s therapist at a free mental health clinic run by the city suddenly [&hel

If you or someone you know is battling a cold, the flu or COVID-19, you’re not alone. It’s that time of year when more people are feeling sick and health officials are stressing the importance of preventing the spread of respiratory illnesses. They’re urging Canadians to get updated flu and COVID-19 vaccines, saying it’s not

Warning: This story contains graphic images of an injury. A passenger who landed at Vancouver International Airport says he almost lost his foot to a septic injury after he was left stranded on a British Airways flight for hours — and was only able to exit the plane after paramedics loaded him onto two airline food trolleys. […]

At one point, Elaine Dawe’s sense of loneliness enveloped her life. “I was sad all the time. I was lonely. I didn’t want to get dressed. I went for a week in my nightgown, didn’t wash my hair sometimes for a week-and-a-half,” said the 76-year-old Toronto woman. Dawe is a human face of what the […]

As a young Black person, the more mental health help you need, the harder a time you seem to have getting it. At least, that’s what Mary, a mental health clinician, told researchers with the Black Health Alliance (BHA), whose study of the state of mental health services for Black youth in Toronto was published […]

A harm reduction non-profit group is on the defensive after brochures it supplied to a high school wellness expo caused some jaws to drop. Handouts with titles like “How to Prepare Your Crack Pipe” and “Safer Crystal Meth Smoking” were available to students at Medicine Hat High School until the group, SafeLink Alberta, was a

A year after New Brunswick residents set a dubious Canadian record for COVID-19 deaths, provincial health officials remain reluctant to speak about what went wrong in the province, or even acknowledge that things did go wrong. According to data released by Statistics Canada last month, New Brunswick recorded 657 deaths caused by COVID-19 in 2022.  

Compared to urban dwellers, rural Canadians are more vulnerable to climate change in many ways and face extra challenges to adaptation, says a new federal government report. The “Canada in a Changing Climate” synthesis report, released late last week, found among its key conclusions that climate change is harming Canadians’ health

A newly published peer-reviewed study found that mistreatment of medical residents in the Maritimes remains common and underreported. From October to November 2021, all 645 medical residents associated with Dalhousie University were invited to answer questions about their experiences on the job since graduating. Residents are medical school graduat

Only about 14 per cent of eligible New Brunswickers have received the new COVID-19 vaccine designed to target the Omicron XBB.1.5 subvariant, figures from the Department of Health show. Meanwhile, more than a third of those aged 65 and older, who are considered at higher risk, have gotten the new shot, according to department spokesperson Sean Hatc

This story is part of CBC Health’s Second Opinion, a weekly analysis of health and medical science news emailed to subscribers on Saturday mornings. If you haven’t subscribed yet, you can do that by clicking here. Four years — yes, four whole years — after the virus behind COVID-19 exploded into public consciousness, health-care teams a

The Public Health Agency of Canada on Friday confirmed a sixth death tied to a salmonella outbreak caused by the consumption of contaminated cantaloupes. PHAC said in a statement that 53 people have been hospitalized and there have been 153 lab-confirmed cases so far. “Based on the investigation findings to date, consumption of Malichita and

Canadian residents whose personal data was compromised in a 2019 LifeLabs data breach can now apply for up to $150 in compensation from a multi-million dollar class action settlement approved in October.  The private medical diagnostics company and its subsidiaries were the target of a cyberattack on Dec. 17, 2019, that compromised patient data for

Health Canada is warning people not to buy unauthorized injectable drugs sold online by Canlab Research. The advisory said the products “may pose serious health risks.” The injectable products are promoted as peptides and are sold online through Canlab Research websites, including www.canlabresearch.com and www.canlab.net. The sites lis

Starting in 2026, Ontarians will be able to buy beer, wine, cider and seltzers at convenience stores, big box outlets, some gas stations and more supermarkets, marking a major overhaul in how alcohol is sold in the province. A suite of changes announced by Premier Doug Ford Thursday are intended to modernize the booze market, […]

The Current7:22How Reader’s Digest changed this Canadian’s life When Elisabeth Baugh opened a Reader’s Digest in 1982, she didn’t know it would change her life. Baugh was born with an arteriovenous malformation, a rare vascular defect that caused changes to the appearance of her face.  There’s no known cause, but it’s been s

Soleiman Faqiri’s deadly restraint by Ontario jail guards in 2016 has been deemed a homicide — words his family has waited to hear for nearly seven years since he died shackled, pepper sprayed and covered with a spit hood face down on a cell floor. The verdict from the jury at the coroner’s inquest carries no […]

Health Minister Mark Holland signalled Tuesday the government is unlikely to meet the end-of-the-year deadline imposed by the NDP for passing pharmacare legislation — a condition of the supply-and-confidence agreement that was struck to keep the Liberals in power until 2025. Holland said talks are ongoing with NDP MP Don Davies, the party’s h

The federal government unveiled details about its highly anticipated Canadian Dental Care Plan (CDCP) earlier on Monday.  The CDCP is a $13-billion insurance program that will start covering most basic dentistry costs next year for uninsured Canadians with a household income under $90,000. That’s about nine million Canadians, according to the

The federal government unveiled its new dental-care plan on Monday — a $13-billion insurance program that will start covering routine dentistry costs next year for people who meet a certain income threshold. Ottawa will cover kids under 18 and some seniors first before expanding the program to all eligible low- and middle-income Canadians in 2025.

Public sector strikes are ramping up again this week, and now 80,000 nurses and health professionals are joining the hundreds of thousands who are already on strike. Quebec’s largest nurses’ union, the Fédération interprofessionnelle de la santé du Québec (FIQ), has launched a four-day strike as it continues negotiating a new contract w

This story idea came from audience members, like you, who asked about the RSV vaccine. Email us your questions. We are listening: [email protected]. It’s that time of year, respiratory illnesses are going around — including respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).  Typically, mild RSV symptoms can include runny nose, coughing, sneezing, wheezing, fever an

The Dose25:41How can I prevent and treat hearing loss? Martha Perusse still remembers the day two decades ago when she wore hearing aids for the first time, at the age of 48.  “I picked them up and went right back to work. I was walking around the building and I thought, ‘This has to be wrong,'” […]

WARNING: This story contains mentions of suicide “Microdosing saved my life,” says Andrina Stan.  Stan, 35, works as an integrated therapist in Toronto and has struggled with her mental health at times. Stan says she believes it was psilocybin, the psychoactive ingredient found in magic mushrooms, that helped her turn her life around. 

This story is part of CBC Health’s Second Opinion, a weekly analysis of health and medical science news emailed to subscribers on Saturday mornings. If you haven’t subscribed yet, you can do that by clicking here. At least five people in Canada have died in a salmonella outbreak linked to contaminated cantaloupe that scientists have tra

About one in nine Canadian adults have experienced long-term symptoms from COVID-19 infection, according to a Statistics Canada report issued Friday. That amounts to 3.5 million Canadians, it said. Almost 80 per cent of those people with long-term symptoms have them for six months or more, the report said. In addition, more than half of […]

Five people have now died in a salmonella outbreak linked to two brands of cantaloupes sold in six Canadian provinces, according to federal officials. The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) said on Thursday that 129 people have now been confirmed with salmonella linked to the outbreak — almost double the number at the last update on Dec. [&helli

Health Canada is recommending that prescribers not start new patients on diabetes drugs such as Ozempic because of a worldwide shortage, except under certain conditions. The federal department said Wednesday it is working with manufacturers to monitor supplies. Global demand for Ozempic has skyrocketed, in part because of prescriptions related to w

Hospitals across Ontario have dramatically ramped up their use of nurses from private staffing agencies to the tune of untold millions of dollars, according to the province’s auditor general. A new auditor’s report finds that hospitals are filling staffing gaps by hiring agency nurses at significantly higher hourly rates than they pay t

If your child is sick — but doesn’t require immediate care — avoid going to the emergency room this holiday season, staff at two Montreal pediatric hospitals said on Wednesday.  A cocktail of respiratory viruses has been sickening adults and children alike in Quebec, placing a strain on Quebec’s emergency rooms. But doctors from the [&h

A proposed class-action lawsuit against 23andMe could include more people in Canada than originally anticipated, experts say, after the genetic testing company said a data breach affected millions more customers than initially believed. A statement from the company on Tuesday said hackers have gained access to roughly 6.9 million profiles on the si

Health Canada has authorized an adapted vaccine from Novavax to prevent COVID-19 in people age 12 and older. Novavax’s product — Nuvaxovid XBB.1.5 Omicron subvariant COVID-19 vaccine — uses a more traditional approach to defend the body against severe infection, hospitalization and death. It is also authorized as a booster for those 18 and ol

WARNING: This article contains details of sexual extortion and may affect those who have experienced it or know someone affected by it. Saleema Noon has been a sex educator in B.C. for 20 years. In her workshops, students can submit anonymous questions that she responds to with a frankness and honesty that is devoid of […]

More people have come forward with concerns about a lack of communication from the Appletree chain of clinics in Ottawa when patients became attached to family doctors with little notice or no follow-up. CBC News recently published a story about a woman who said she was kicked off Health Care Connect — Ontario’s family doctor […]

A B.C. doctor who was fired after refusing to be vaccinated against COVID-19 has lost her bid to get her hospital privileges back. The Hospital Appeal Board has found that Dr. Theresa Szezepaniak’s refusal of the shot in 2021 amounted to neglect of her obligations as a hospitalist at Royal Inland Hospital, and the decision […]

A group of Canadian doctors are in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, this week at COP28 to raise awareness about the impacts climate change is having on the health of patients and the overall health-care system. The closure of the Yellowknife, Hay River and Fort Smith hospitals this summer for several weeks in the Northwest Territories […]

White Coat Black Art26:30Library on the Frontlines Featured VideoYou wouldn’t expect to find an overdose response and prevention team at a library. But Edmonton’s flagship library is going next level to take care of some of its most vulnerable citizens. They also have a team of social workers and other programs. They’re meeting people where [

The Dose24:45How can I take care of my mental health through the dark months? Read Transcribed Audio As winter sets in and daylight fades earlier, you may be starting to notice some familiar patterns. Perhaps you’re having a hard time getting out of bed in the morning, even if you slept a solid eight hours. Maybe […]

This story is part of CBC Health’s Second Opinion, a weekly analysis of health and medical science news emailed to subscribers on Saturday mornings. If you haven’t subscribed yet, you can do that by clicking here. In Bangladesh, roughly 300,000 people have been infected with dengue this year during the country’s worst-ever outbrea

The hockey sweater from that night still hangs on the wall of Kim Crouch’s basement rec room. So expertly repaired, and cleaned, that you have to look twice to see the jagged line where emergency workers cut it off his blood-soaked torso. The long, hooked scar on the right side of his neck has faded […]

Canada’s health minister says he’ll act quickly to shut down a “loophole” after Health Canada approved the sale of flavoured nicotine pouches with no restrictions on how the product is advertised or sold. “There are very serious questions about what the tobacco industry is doing here and what their intention is. And it

A new Commons committee report is calling on Ottawa to create a national breast implant registry to better track the devices, alert patients promptly when there’s a recall and collect “reliable and comprehensive data” on associated health risks. Health risks related to breast implants — including the increased prevalence of a rare

Canada’s 988 hotline, which gives people access to suicide prevention services via call or text, went live on Thursday. People in every province and territory who are experiencing a mental health crisis and need immediate, real-time support can use the three-digit number. Similar to 911 for accessing fire, police and medical emergencies, 988:

Dume Bera wades through waist-high weeds as he steps into his backyard for the first time in years. His children watch from inside the house, behind windows that are always shut tight. No one in Bera’s household ever touches the soil. A married father of three, the 43-year-old Bera is afraid of the contaminated soil found […]

If 2022 was the year mpox infections exploded globally, 2023 was the year much of the world stopped paying attention. Yet Canadian researchers, in collaboration with scientists working on the ground in hot spots such as Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), are still shining a spotlight on the virus that sparked last […]

Statistics Canada says life expectancy for the average Canadian at birth has fallen for three straight years, from 82.3 years in 2019 to 81.3 in 2022. The report on deaths shows New Brunswick saw the biggest decline in life expectancy in 2022, dropping to 79.8 years from 80.9 in 2021. Saskatchewan’s life expectancy has fallen […]

A heated debate is brewing in Alberta that has implications for the future of primary care in the province. This week, the provincial government announced nurse practitioners will be allowed to set up their own publicly funded independent practices as early as January. During Wednesday’s news conference, Premier Danielle Smith touted the plan

Officials are racing to track the contacts of the United Kingdom’s first human case of a “distinct” form of swine flu. On Monday, the U.K. Health Security Agency (UKHSA) announced it had detected a single confirmed human case of influenza A(H1N2)v as part of routine national flu surveillance. There have been dozens of human cases

When Dr. Anil Kapoor was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer in January his prognosis was positive, and his family was hopeful treatment would buy him several more years. But weeks later, the 58-year-old Burlington, Ont., resident was dead — killed not by the cancer, say doctors, but by the commonly prescribed cancer drug Fluorouracil […]

Nearly 2.5 million Canadians have indicated they want to be organ and tissue donors, thanks to a Conservative private member’s bill that lets people tick a box on their annual tax return. The question appeared on forms for the first time this past tax season in Ontario and Nunavut and 2,450,000 Canadians have declared they […]

It’s a cool fall day. The leaves have long disappeared, and there’s a thin, crunchy layer of snow on the grass — typical for autumn, but still, it’s a not-so-kind reminder that months of winter still lie ahead. It’s also the season to pull the winter jackets and snow boots out of storage. But outside […]

This story is part of CBC Health’s Second Opinion, a weekly analysis of health and medical science news emailed to subscribers on Saturday mornings. If you haven’t subscribed yet, you can do that by clicking here. The impacts of climate change hit Canada hard in recent years, from the deadly heat dome of 2021 to the country’s wors

More than 100 people in the U.S. and Canada have been sickened by salmonella after eating cantaloupe or additional fruits that are now under recall. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday that a total of 99 people in 32 states have been infected with the outbreak strain of salmonella. Minnesota reported […]