Healthcare Year In Review by the Globe and Mail
11 IDEAS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD OF HEALTH IN 2015 It takes major news to tilt conventional wisdom off its axis - and this year had its share of blockbusters: Supreme Court of Canada rules on physician-assisted suicide Dairy and red meat take heat Genes are tweaked Overhaul sought for Home-care The brain’s blood-brain barrier is breeched The anti-vaccination movement loses steam Germs get their due Autism gets reimagined Fairy-tale romance gets a reality check We stand up to sitting Infants nibble...
OXA-48 strain of CPO in the news
Several stories have been circulating in the U.S. press around a strain of CPO that the media has dubbed "The Phantom Menace". The stories refer to this report published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on December 4, 2015. The main summary points of the report are: The plasmid containing OXA-48-like genes has high transfer efficiency, and the OXA-48 gene is more difficult to identify. CDC has modified...
BCCDC Reportable Disease Dashboard
The BC Centre for Disease Control's public health analytics team has created an interactive tool that provides summary statistics on a variety of reportable diseases and conditions in British Columbia. You can now search by disease, health region, and date range to see the geographic distribution, age and sex breakdowns, and the counts and rates for each health authority and health service delivery area for the selected disease. The reportable diseases dashboard...
Case control study for MERS-CoV risk factors
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have published a study on Risk Factors for Primary Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus Illness in Humans, Saudi Arabia, 2014. Read the full article in CDC Emerging Infectious Diseases, Volume 22, Number 1—January 2016., Produced by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), this highly-magnified, digitally-colorized scanning electron micrograph (SEM) reveals ultrastructural details at the site of interaction of numerous yellow-colored Middle East respiratory...
Lyme disease risk analysis
Researchers with the B.C. Centre for Disease Control have just completed the province’s first systemic analysis of the threat of Lyme disease carried by certain types of ticks. Dr. Muhammad Morshed, program head of zoonotic diseases and emerging pathogens at the B.C. CDC, said 150 traps were placed at 12 different locations around the province — Belcarra, Burnaby Mountain, Coquitlam, Cranbrook, Cultus Lake, Duncan, Nanaimo, Okanagan, Penticton, Sechelt, Squamish and West...
Genetically modified mosquito can resist malaria infection
US scientists say they have bred a genetically modified (GM) mosquito that can resist malaria infection. The scientists put a new "resistance" gene into the mosquito's own DNA, using a gene editing method called Crispr. And when the GM mosquitoes mated - their offspring inherited the same resistance, PNAS journal reports. In theory, if these mosquitoes bite people, they should not be able to pass on the parasite that causes malaria. Read the full...
Link between Zika Fever and birth defects in Brazil
The Brazilian health ministry has confirmed a link between a mosquito-borne virus from Africa, Zika Fever, and a high incidence of birth defects. The fever, it said, is behind a spike in cases of micro-encephalitis - an inflammation of the brain contracted in the first months of pregnancy. It has recorded two adult deaths and 739 cases of the disease, which can stunt the growth of the foetus's head. A World Health Organization...