Steve Anthony: True Canadian Pharmacy

p Tracey estimated that $250 million will ultimately be spent on the campaign this year. ad featuring an Ontario woman who spoke out against the Canadian health-care system may be exaggerating the severity of her condition, say medical experts. S. S. Through June 27, $31 million has been spent for roughly 47,000 TV ads on health care this year, says Evan Tracey, president of the Campaign Media Analysis Group, a firm that tracks issue advertising. !–more– health care. President Barack Obama’s plan to involve the government playing a role in reforming U.
Dr. , said she would have died had she relied on the Canadian health-care system and waited to see a specialist. Congress and dozens of interest groups, companies and labour unions tussle to influence legislators. He told CBC News symptoms can be alleviated if the cyst is drained or part of it removed to take pressure off the optic nerve. 8 million US running the ad in Washington, D. Holmes said U. Then the person’s vision almost always improves. Her publicist, paid for by the lobby group, says she’s now declining interviews. It is one of a handful of commercials that are expected to grow in number and criticism this summer as detailed health bills emerge from the U. S. ads saying she had to go to the Mayo Clinic in Arizona to be treated for a rare type of cyst at the base of her brain — a Rathke’s cleft cyst. It warns that Washington wants to bring in Canadian-style health care that would cause deadly delays for people waiting for important medical procedures. It typically does not require urgent attention, he said. If somebody called me about a patient that was losing her vision or had a structural abnormality of the brain I would see them within days. But Holmes told CBC News in an earlier interview she believes Canadians are not speaking up about the problems in the health-care system. Another $12 million has gone to ads generally favouring better health care, nearly all of it from the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, representing drug makers, which hopes its market will expand if more people have insurance. Canadian experts say that had Shona Holmes’s case been deemed an emergency, she would have received care in Canada within days. C. After trying unsuccessfully to expedite the process, she was diagnosed and treated at the Mayo Clinic. Shona Holmes has appeared in U. A U.
Americans for Prosperity says it has spent nearly $1. She mortgaged her home and paid $100,000 to be treated there because getting care in Canada involved a six-month wait, she said.
The contentious advertisement is being run by a conservative lobby group, the Americans for Prosperity Foundation, opposed to U. S. Holmes denies taking any money from Americans for Prosperity for her message. doctors considered the cyst a tumour, and that it would cause death if not removed immediately. Holmes, from Waterdown, Ont. S. , and 11 states with key senators who are either writing health-care bills or wavering on the issue. But the director of the brain tumour research centre at the Montreal Neurological Institute says he thinks that claim is an exaggeration. If it’s a real emergency in the sense that the patient’s visual function is getting substantially worse, the patients would be brought in immediately and would be operated on the next day, he said. So far, Tracey said about $15 million has been spent on ads favouring the Democrats’ push to revamp the health-care system and $4 million to oppose it. Rolando Del Maestro says the lesion Holmes was diagnosed with is benign, and usually slow-growing. She is currently suing OHIP to recoup those costs. In 2005, Holmes, complaining of headaches and vision loss, went to see a Canadian doctor and was put on a six-month waiting list to see specialist. S. But neurosurgeon Michael Schwartz of Toronto’s Sunnybrook Hospital says he’s never seen or heard of a death from a Rathke’s cyst. She said that every time she thinks about stopping her criticism of the system, she gets another really sad phone call or desperate phone call of somebody who is tragically trying to get treatment in Canada and can’t.

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CNN.com:
Pharmacies in England are reporting a run on supplies like surgical masks, thermometers and anti-bacterial gels by customers concerned about swine flu amid a surge in the number of people infected by the virus.
In some cases, drug stores in England say they are out of the items and may not get more in for weeks or months.
People are very panicked, said a pharmacy assistant at Zafash Pharmacy in southwest London. That’s why everyone !–more– is running for thermometers, surgical masks, and anti-bacterial gels.
The UK’s Department of Health estimated this week that there were around 100,000 new cases of swine flu in England in the week ending July 17 — nearly double the number of cases for the previous seven days.

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Albertans will be eligible for a free vaccine against seasonal influenza this fall and, though the shots won’t protect against the H1N1 virus, experts predict a high level of interest amid the swine flu pandemic.
Alberta Health on Thursday announced an expansion of its annual flu shots–which have historically been offered to high-risk groups for free — into an $8-million vaccination program for everyone over six months of age.
The program comes !–more– as the province prepares a separate vaccination plan for H1N1, the new influenza virus that first emerged in Mexico this spring and spread around the world.
Although this is coming in at the same time as the H1N1 virus, this is something that was in the works for some time, said Dr. Andre Corriveau, chief medical officer of health for Alberta.
We’ve decided to go ahead with that plan, even though we are dealing with something else on top of it.
Corriveau conceded the health system will face a significant increase in workload as it tries to deliver the two vaccines to all Albertans. He said the province is also drafting a communications strategy so patients understand the difference between the shots.

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p Of those 24 cases, two people have been treated in hospital, including one who has since been released. If flu symptoms appear in a community that had no prior cases, the first 10 patients will be tested. T. So we’re really tracking more closely the more severe cases, rather than the actual number of cases that are positive. W. Antiviral treatment for the flu is most effective if it’s administered within 48 hours of the onset of flu symptoms, !–more– she said. Health Department told CBC News. Geraldine Osborne, Nunavut’s deputy medical officer of health. They also would not identify which communities have H1N1 infections, except to say the cases are spread throughout the territory. Most of the new cases came from Nunavut’s easterly Baffin region, which now accounts for 14 per cent of total cases. Officials say they will only identify specific communities if the entire community, or parts of it, experience unusually high numbers of H1N1 infections. Once the H1N1 virus has been confirmed in a community, only those who are considered seriously ill or at high risk will be tested. That’s up from 20 posted on the department’s website earlier this week. Osborne said it’s important that people with chronic medical conditions, as well as women who are pregnant, call their local health centre if they think they are getting the flu.
Health officials say they are boosting surveillance in the Baffin region, as more cases are being discovered, mainly watching communities where the virus has not been identified yet. The virus is widespread now and a lot of people who have the virus don’t even get swabbed. The numbers of lab-confirmed cases are really of less importance to us now. What we really need to track are the number of people with severe illness, said Dr. A total of 24 cases of the H1N1 influenza virus were confirmed in the Northwest Territories, a spokesman for the N. New swine flu infections were reported Wednesday in both the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, raising the total in both territories to 489 — mostly in Nunavut. But that figure may not reflect the actual number of Nunavummiut who have contracted swine flu, since the territory’s Health Department ended its increased surveillance program for the H1N1 virus only last month. In Nunavut, which has been hit much harder by swine flu, health officials confirmed 34 new cases Wednesday, bringing the total there to 465. Health officials would not give further details about the patient who remains in hospital. Most of the swine flu cases have occurred in the Kitikmeot and Kivalliq regions in the western and central parts of the territory.

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p usually follow the panel’s recommendations. Federal health officials in the U.
If a pregnant women feels like she may have influenza, it’s important for her to call a health-care provider right away to receive antiviral treatment quickly, preferably within 48 hours of symptoms appearing, Jamieson said. The U. Years of experience with Tamiflu during pregnancy suggest the benefits outweigh the risks, said Dr. They were put on ventilators before !–more– they died. Be vigilant about hand washing. Pregnant women suspected of having swine flu should be given antiviral drugs as soon as flu symptoms appear, even if the diagnosis is not confirmed, say researchers at the U. , the CDC has detailed information on 266 of them. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have concluded that pregnant women suspected of having swine flu should be given Tamiflu as soon as possible. The women were generally healthy, aside from one women who had asthma and another who was obese. The advisory committee on immunization practices also recommended that parents and other caregivers of infants (who are too young to be vaccinated themselves), non-elderly adults who have high-risk medical conditions, and young adults ages 19 to 24 be given priority for receiving a pandemic vaccine first. Pregnant women should also be made a priority group for receiving a vaccine against the H1N1 virus when it is ready, the researchers said. Researchers at the U. S. The deaths related to swine flu were reported to CDC between April 15 and June 16. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. I think the point for Canadians is that, assuming there isn’t a huge problem that is unanticipated, unlike most countries, we actually have sufficient vaccine to provide that to the population who needs it and wants to have it, Butler-Jones told a news conference on Wednesday. Federal health officials told CBC News they don’t know if the women were treated with antivirals or when. Check that surfaces and items are clean and disinfected. S. There are a lot of changes during pregnancy, said the study’s lead author, Dr. S. Of 302 deaths attributed to swine flu to date in the U. There are also immunologic changes, and all of these changes render pregnant women more susceptible to and more severely affected by certain viruses. In the U. David Butler-Jones, Canada’s chief public health officer. For example, as the uterus grows, it pushes up the diaphragm and there’s less room for the lungs, so the lung capacity is decreased. Also on Wednesday, Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq told a news conference that Canada’s supplier of pandemic vaccine remains on track to start immunization campaigns by the late fall. Carry a hand sanitizer. government panel recommended Wednesday that pregnant women, health-care workers, and children six months and older be among those placed first in line for swine flu vaccine. A U. Butler-Jones said Canadian experts want to collect as much information as possible, including data from clinical trials of vaccines in other countries, before making a priority list of who should get the shots first. Two, or 40 per cent, of the five women who died. S. Pregnant women are one of the groups health officials hope to vaccinate early on, he said. The Public Health Agency of Canada released new information to guide health-care workers in acute-care facilities, long-term-care facilities, and for emergency response workers such as paramedics, ambulance attendants, police officers and firefighters. Nearly three weeks ago, the Public Health Agency of Canada suggested that pregnant women avoid large crowds such as summer festivals or crowded marketplaces, but continue to go to work and church. Denise Jamieson of the CDC’s National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion in Atlanta. Nine, or 15 per cent, of the 60 women admitted to intensive care. I think the data now is pretty clear that even in seasonal flu, this is not a disease you want to get during pregnancy, said Low. The agency has found that 15 of the 266 were pregnant women — or about six per cent. Don Low, chief microbiologist at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto. S. Of the six fatal pregnancies cases out of 45 deaths described in the study, nearly all the pregnant women had viral pneumonia before experiencing acute respiratory problems. 1 per cent, of the 235 women hospitalized. S, Canada has yet to draft a priority list for who should get a pandemic vaccine first when it becomes available, said Dr. And especially during a pandemic with a new strain like H1N1, this is a risk to you and your fetus. Among Canadian women between ages 15 and 50 who were hospitalized, admitted to intensive care or died as a result of H1N1, the following number were pregnant at the time, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada:
Forty-five, or 19. Unlike the U. S. pregnancy findings, published in Wednesday’s online issue of The Lancet, were based on a small number of cases, and can’t address whether pregnancy makes a woman susceptible to H1N1. The guidelines advice emergency responders on what screening questions to ask, suggested precautions to take during transport, and when health care workers should use masks and other protective equipment, and how to dispose of them, said Butler-Jones. , none of the pregnant women who died was given Tamiflu in a timely fashion. S.
The study’s authors also concluded that the risks of getting seriously ill from swine flu is likely more serious than possible side-effects from antiviral drugs or a vaccine. Britain’s Department of Health also suggests pregnant women may want to avoid crowded places.

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p Medical isotopes are used for scans to diagnose cancer and heart disease. The cyclotron will be down for about a week, said Dr. The shortage situation was bad enough when the Chalk River nuclear reactor in Ontario closed down for repairs. 18. Quebec hospitals were dealt another setback in their attempts to deal with the shortage of medical isotopes Monday when the cyclotron at Sherbrooke University Hospital was shut down for maintenance. Turcotte !–more– said the maintenance has been scheduled for months. Then the Dutch reactor that had stepped up production to fill the gap was itself closed for maintenance, and won’t reopen until Aug. Initially, officials said it would be closed for three months. Menawhile, a patients rights group in Quebec is threatening legal action against the federal government unless the Chalk River reactor is up and running again soon. The reactor supplies 30 per cent of the world’s medical isotopes, and was shut down in May for repairs. Many hospitals have been using the sodium fluoride isotopes produced by the cyclotron to pick up some of the slack from the lack of radioactive medical isotopes. It’s an important step to perform to be sure to not get into problems during the years to come, he said. Later, they said it may be closed until the end of the year. Eric Turcotte, head of the molecular imaging centre at the hospital. The Council for the Protection of the Sick said it wants compensation for patients affected by the current isotope shortage, and is demanding the government look at alternative sources of medical isotopes. This maintenance is the only huge maintenance in the whole year of operation of the cyclotron. The medical isotope shortage is getting so bad in Quebec that the director of nuclear medicine at the Trois-Rivières Regional Hospital said Tuesday that all non-emergency procedures will likely have to be postponed. The sodium fluoride isotopes can only be used for bone scans, but it’s estimated that covers about 20 to 40 per cent of scans done on an average day. Michel Leblanc said that starting next week, it’s possible only urgent cases will be treated.

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p That’s a really good example … of where this kind of information in the public domain — which is a draft document — is totally misleading. Dr. C. NDP health critic Adrian Dix says the B. Dix said the documents are evidence the B. Following the election, Health Minister Kevin Falcon told the province’s regional health authorities they would have to cut an estimated $360 million in spending plans to stick within their budgets for the year. !–more– In fact, Fraser Health is building beds as fast as we can, said Murray. Nigel Murray said the papers quoted by Dix are only planning documents, and no decisions have been made on any suggested cuts to services, hospital beds, operating rooms or programs. In fact, we have no intention of cutting 200 beds. The current B. The CEO of the Fraser Health Authority says NDP health critic Adrian Dix is misleading the public about the prospect of cuts to health-care services, based on leaked documents. Liberals hid looming cuts to health-care services during the provincial election. Cost-sharing and administrative efficiencies are the first place the health authority will look for savings, but cuts to services can’t be ruled out, said Murray. C. C. B. Liberal government knew about the looming deficits before last May’s provincial election. 7 billion is expected to climb by more than $2 billion by 2011, an increase of 87 per cent since 2001, according to ministry officials. health-care budget of about $15. C. On Monday, Dix released internal documents that say the Fraser Health Authority is considering deep cuts to make up for a $160-million deficit by closing 5½ operating rooms, downgrading the emergency room at Mission Memorial Hospital, closing diabetes programs in Delta and Mission and cutting 200 acute care beds.

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B.C. pharmacists will soon have the authority to give injections to patients if regulatory changes proposed Tuesday are approved.
The Ministry of Health Services is proposing changes to the Health Professions Act that would allow qualified pharmacists to administer vaccinations and other injections to patients.
Under the proposed regulations, interested pharmacists will be required to complete a comprehensive training program before receiving !–more– authorization from the College of Pharmacists of B.C.
The standards of practice and training program are being developed jointly between the BC Pharmacy Association, the College of Pharmacists of B.C. and the BC Centre for Disease Control.
The province is expecting the regulatory changes and training to be completed by mid-fall to allow pharmacists time to prepare for the annual flu vaccination campaign the province is launching this fall.

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Shoppers Drug Mart, Canada’s biggest pharmacy chain, reported a higher quarterly profit on Wednesday that matched expectations, helped by stronger sales of prescription drugs and beauty care products.
Shoppers said it earned C$136.1 million ($123.7 million), or 63 Canadian cents a share, for the second quarter, ended June 20, up from C$126.6 million, or 58 Canadian cents a share, for the same period last year.
The company said the 2009 results !–more– were also helped by the inclusion of Easter holiday weekend sales.
Revenue climbed 8.5 percent to C$2.29 billion, with same store sales rising 5.7 percent.

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B.C. residents spend 25 per cent less per capita on medicine than the rest of Canada #8212; except when it comes to prescription drugs for erectile dysfunction.
A new University of B.C. report on prescription drug spending does not explain whether the greater use of drugs such as Viagra, Cialis and Levitra is due to a higher proportion of men in B.C.
Experts say it might have to do with cultural factors #8212; the drugs are used recreationally !–more– in the homosexual community.
We know they are used in the gay community as performance-enhancing drugs, so that’s a theory to explain the higher spending here, but I have no data to back that up, said Alan Cassels, a drug policy researcher at the University of Victoria.
Commenting on the findings in the Canadian Rx Atlas by the UBC Centre for Health Services and Policy Research, Cassels said B.C. doctors tend to be more conservative when prescribing drugs, but maybe not when it comes to Viagra.

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