New AMMI Antiviral Guidance for Influenza Outbreaks
In December 2015, the Association of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Disease Canada (AMMI) published an updated guidance document for the use of antivirals in the management of care facility influenza outbreaks for the 2015-16 season. Given the potential for low vaccine effectiveness of this season’s influenza vaccine, the AMMI guidance document states that, at the discretion of the local health authority or Medical Health Officer, antiviral prophylaxis may be extended beyond...
MCR-1 gene in Canada
The discovery that the MCR-1 gene — which makes E. coli and some other species of bacteria resistant to colistin — has been in Canada for at least five years has scientists wondering when it first emerged and how to stop its spread. The existence of the plasmid-mediated colistin resistance, or MCR-1, gene was first reported in November 2015 in the medical journal the Lancet after scientists identified it in E....
Study links IBS to Vitamin D deficiency
A study published in the British Medical Journal has shown a link between Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and lack of vitamin D. There is no single known cause and no single known cure for IBS, although food and stress have been identified as aggravating factors. In the study by the University of Sheffield's Molecular Gastroenterology Research Group, 82 per cent of the 52 IBS sufferers tested had insufficient levels of vitamin D. Read...
Bandage that signals infection
Researchers in the United Kingdom recently unveiled a prototype “intelligent” dressing that turns fluorescent green to signal the onset of an infection. The color-changing bandage contains a gel-like material infused with tiny capsules that release nontoxic fluorescent dye in response to contact with populations of bacteria that commonly cause wound infections. Led by Toby Jenkins, a professor of biophysical chemistry at the University of Bath, the inventors of the new bandage,...
CRISPR named ‘Breakthrough of the Year’ by Science magazine
A gene-editing technology called CRISPR-Cas9 was voted by the editors of the American journal Science as the most important research breakthrough of 2015. A day earlier, Nature named the Chinese researcher Junjiu Huang one of the 10 people who mattered in 2015 for being the first to use the CRISPR system to edit the DNA of (non-viable) human embryos. Last month, researchers from UC Irvine and UC San Diego showed how mosquitoes genetically modified...
Avian Influenza Bulletin – ‘tis the Season Reminder
From BCCDC: We are sending this pre-holiday bulletin as a reminder that the first three importations from China to North America of human infections with avian influenza (H5N1 and H7N9) were reported by Canada in early January 2014 (n=1) and 2015 (n=2), following the Christmas holiday period. This includes a young adult from Alberta who acquired avian influenza A(H5N1) infection while in Beijing, China between December 6 and 27, 2013. Upon return...
Quebec offers HPV vaccine to boys
The [Quebec] provincial government is changing a seven-year-old policy and will begin offering HPV vaccines without charge to young men. Starting in January 2016, men aged 26 and under who have sexual relations with other men will be eligible to get the vaccine against the human papilloma virus. Next school year, in September 2016, boys in grade 4 will also be offered the HPV vaccine. Parents of those aged 13 and under...