Steve Anthony: True Canadian Pharmacy

p Like everyone else, students, teachers and other staff should stay home if they are feeling sick, the WHO said. Australia on Friday reported its first case of drug-resistant H1N1, which would raise the tally to 22. On Thursday, the U. But last month, the Public Health Agency of Canada said there is no point closing schools unless the severity of swine flu cases increases, if there aren’t enough teachers coming to work or many students are sick. !–more– If students congregate in a setting other than a school, they will continue to spread the virus, and the benefits of school closure will be greatly reduced, if not negated, the statement said. The H1N1 virus has killed nearly 3,000 people since emerging last April. The number of reported cases resistant to the antiviral Tamiflu or oseltamivir is 21, the agency said in its weekly report. It’s only worth closing schools to slow the spread of the H1N1 pandemic virus during the earliest stages of an outbreak, the World Health Organization said Friday. S. [S]chool closure has its greatest benefits when schools are closed very early in an outbreak, ideally before one per cent of the population falls ill, the UN health agency said in a statement advising its 193 member states. It is now the main flu strain circulating in both hemispheres, according to the WHO. Health officials are watching for signs that the virus may be mutating in a way to make the antiviral ineffective.
Health officials are concerned that hospitals and health facilities could be overwhelmed by people needing medical care during the peak of the global outbreak. Under ideal conditions, school closure can reduce the demand for health care by an estimated 30 to 50 per cent at the peak of the pandemic. So far, Tamiflu and Relenza, another antiviral, are considered effective against the H1N1 virus. The United States and Britain have advised schools to stay open except under exceptional circumstances, given that it’s thought that school closures do not help reduce the number of cases but spread them out over a longer time while keeping parents, including health care workers, away from work. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported what could be Tamiflu-resistant flu virus spreading from person to person. Schools should also designate spaces to isolate those who fall ill while at school. Proper cleaning, ventilation and measures to reduce crowding are recommended, along with hand hygiene and repiratory etiquette, WHO said. WHO also said Friday that swine flu has claimed at least 3,205 people worldwide. It usually causes mild symptoms, but pregnant women and those having underlying medical conditions are at higher risk. Most resistant viruses were found in people who had been taking the antiviral to prevent infection or treat it. During school closures, officials should also try to limit students from congregating elsewhere socially, such as malls.

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p McAleese was taken to The Moncton Hospital and it is not yet known what caused him to collapse. You know with his breathing and his heart problems it’s not easy but where he was so concerned with this meeting, he wanted to attend, Gould said. Health concerns from parents and local residents go back decades. The Department of Health is denying the air is dangerous near Moncton’s École Champlain, a school in the middle of an industrial area. !–more– Dr. ‘
Rod McAleese, who is in his 80s, had stepped up to the microphone and told government officials how he had spent his entire life in the area and he was convinced there were problems with the air. The school was built in 1969 when only an asphalt plant, which is roughly 150 metres away, was in the neighbourhood. You say it won’t hurt you, but we’ve had all kinds of deaths over there from cancer and breathing trouble. No. The public meeting last well over two hours, but it ended abruptly with a senior collapsed after making an impassioned speech about air quality in the area. ‘You know with his breathing and his heart problems it’s not easy but where he was so concerned with this meeting, he wanted to attend. Van Buynder and several others helped get him down and tried to keep him conscious until an ambulance arrived. Van Buynder said the department cannot demonstrate the air in the area is creating any adverse impact on the health of people in the area. You don’t live there, does the mayor live there? The type of dust that we’re seeing is not the type of dust that the Health Department is particularly worried about, he said.
Minutes later McAleese was spotted slumping over in his chair. But we do, he said. Over the last year, the provincial government has been testing the air near the primary school that is surrounded by heavy industry and sees hundreds of large trucks rumble by the building each day. Paul Van Buynder, the province’s deputy chief medical officer of health, told a public meeting on Tuesday night that the department’s testing has shown the air quality is not that bad. In recent months, parents have been calling on the government to move the school from the area. Ray Gould, a friend of McAleese, said the man has some health issues but he was determined to attend the public meeting. There are now dozens of industrial companies that have cropped up near the kindergarten to Grade 5 school.

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p Now it is 24 hours after the fever goes away, and that’s based on new information we have on how the virus spreads in the laboratory and person to person,
If the severity of illness caused by the H1N1 virus worsens, then other strategies could be used, including:
Actively screening for fever and respiratory infection symptoms when people arrive at school. Basically, this will be a tiered response, Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in !–more– an interview Friday on CBS’s
The Early Show. guidelines released Friday. We know now that closing schools is not the best option in most cases, Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the U. S. Reviewing policies on school dismissals with public health officials if excessive absenteeism occurs or to reduce demand on the health-care system. If the numbers escalate dramatically, then we might have to close the schools. Every winter, seasonal flu outbreaks prompt a few schools to do so. Permitting high-risk students, staff and students with ill family members to stay home. Routine cleaning of all areas and items that are more likely to have frequent hand contact, such as keyboards or desks. Extending the exclusion period for people with influenza-like illness to at least seven days. Based on the experience and knowledge gained in jurisdictions that had large outbreaks in spring 2009, the potential benefits of preemptively dismissing students from school are often outweighed by negative consequences, including students being left home alone, health workers missing shifts when they must stay home with their children, students missing meals, and interruption of students’ education, the guidelines for students in kindergarten to Grade 12 read. Schools for pregnant mothers and children with disabilities are an exception, given their high risk from flu. School closure decisions rest with local school officials, but the CDC prepared the advice to help guide their decisions in dealing with the new flu strain for students in kindergarten to Grade 12, one-fifth of the country’s population. Closing schools to prevent the spread of swine flu in the fall should be avoided unless many students are sick and the virus starts to spread faster, according to U. One change is the period of exclusion. S.
Schools are considered a breeding ground for infections, and the CDC said schools should be vigilant about keeping sick students and staff at home. Students and staff who appear to become sick with flu should be promptly be separated in a well-ventilated area and sent home. Respiratory etiquette, such as covering the nose and mouth with a tissue when coughing or sneezing and throwing the tissue in the garbage. Diane Barrera disinfects a classroom in Dallas, Texas, after the school was temporarily closed as a precaution in April after officials learned a student probably had swine flu. If there’s a handful of children at a school who might be sick, we want the parents to keep them home. S. 8 C or greater, or signs of fever, without the use of fever-reducing medications. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told reporters. Last spring, some schools in Canada and the U. Specifically, the department also recommended:
People with influenza-like illness stay at home until at least 24 hours after they are free of fever of 37. temporarily closed their doors. It used to be seven days, Frieden said. Rather, officials should try to slow the spread of the H1N1 virus by keeping students further apart such as by moving desks, keeping classes from mixing and encouraging children to wash their hands several times a day with soap and water, especially after coughing or sneezing. Early treatment with antiviral medications for staff and parents of ill students at higher risk of complications from influenza.

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p President Barack Obama on Wednesday unveiled a series of changes to the oversight of the American financial system, in a move meant to avoid a repeat of the collapse that helped drag the economy into recession. More than 400 pieces of an Air France plane that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Brazil have been recovered, French investigators said Wednesday. The families of 15 passengers who died in the crash of a Sikorsky helicopter !–more– off Newfoundland and the sole survivor of the tragedy are suing a subsidiary of the company in the United States. U. Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff have reached a deal to examine employment insurance reform, averting the possibility of a summer election. Tens of thousands of opponents of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gathered in Tehran on Wednesday as authorities warned citizens against promoting the rallies online. S.

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p The Lakeshore tricycles, which the school said were purchased through fundraising, are estimated to be worth about $250 each. Once on the property at 14707 Bannister Road S. The last two trikes are models regularly available in stores but with altered footplates, said Const. E. , the thief or thieves took four specially designed tricycles used for physiotherapy and programs to develop children’s motor skills.
A green-and-black tricycle. Anyone !–more– with information about the case is asked to call Halarewich at the District 8 police office at (403) 567-6800. Two yellow-and-black tricycles sporting the brand name Lakeshore. Curtis Halarewich. Providence Children’s Centre runs programs for children with disabilities age 16 months to six years. Calgary police are trying to track down four tricycles stolen from a school for children with developmental disabilities. A blue tricycle. Someone broke into the Midnapore location of the Providence Children’s Centre some time in the past week by climbing a fence, said police on Tuesday.

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Waterloo (Ont.) Record:
Celebration was in the air as University of Waterloo officially opened its new school of pharmacy, the first to open in Canada in 20 years.
Hundreds of students, professors, politicians and donors crowded the bright, airy building, widely noted as an architectural gem, to mark what university president David Johnston called a “barn-raising at its best.”
“Ontario has a shortage of pharmacists, and this school is going (more…)

“The school board in Flin Flon, Man. Sattelberger said there are no serious problems with students being high or drunk in class, but students have been found under the influence of alcohol or drugs at other school functions. “It has been used in workplaces,” she said. In a first for the province, school board chair Trish Sattelberger said the board is gathering public input on a draft for a drug-testing policy. She said portable testing devices (more…)

Three children at a Calgary elementary school have come down with a disease that can be dangerous to pregnant women, with another five suspected infections.
An outbreak of fifth disease, which sometimes is referred to as “slapped cheek disease” because of its distinctive red facial rash, has hit Chinook Park School in the southwest, Ted Flitton, a spokesman for the Calgary Board of Education, said on Monday.
He said there are three confirmed cases, (more…)

Doctors should have to regularly prove their skills by passing requalifying exams, the head of one of Canada’s largest medical schools says.
In an editorial in Tuesday’s Canadian Medical Association Journal, Dr. Wendy Levinson, chair of the University of Toronto’s department of medicine, called for provincial colleges to require revalidation for all doctors.
“I just basically trust my doctor and hope she knows what she’s talking about,” said Maureen (more…)