Disease

Pam Alexis, B.C. minister of agriculture and food, said the $5 million she was announcing on March 16 in Chilliwack will protect farmers and their animals from animal diseases, which in turn will protect B.C.’s economy and food security. (Jennifer Feinberg/ The Chilliwack Progress)

B.C. creates $5M animal-disease response program to make farmers, ranchers more resilient

‘Quicker, better’ response coming for B.C. outbreaks of avian influenza, swine fever: ag minister

 

Free range chickens are seen in Abbortsford, B.C. Monday, March 28, 2011. Over the last few months, Canadians have been hearing about the spread of H5N1 avian flu, taking an enormous toll on poultry farms across the country. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward

What we know about H5N1 avian flu and the risk to humans

Risk to humans remains low despite spread among poultry

 

FILE - A relative adjusts the oxygen mask of a tuberculosis patient at a TB hospital on World Tuberculosis Day in Hyderabad, India, March 24, 2018. The number of people infected with tuberculosis, including the kind resistant to drugs, rose globally for the first time in years, according to a report issued Thursday, Oct. 27, 2022 by the World Health Organization. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A., File)

WHO: Tuberculosis cases rise for the first time in years

More than 10 million people worldwide were sickened by tuberculosis in 2021

 

FILE - A person walks by the headquarters of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on April 27, 2018, in Seattle. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced Sunday, Oct. 16, 2022, that it will commit $1.2 billion to the effort to end polio worldwide. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)

Gates Foundation pledges $1.2B to eradicate polio globally

Money will be used to stop outbreaks of new variants of the virus

FILE - A person walks by the headquarters of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on April 27, 2018, in Seattle. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced Sunday, Oct. 16, 2022, that it will commit $1.2 billion to the effort to end polio worldwide. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)
FILE — The Biogen Inc., headquarters is shown March 11, 2020, in Cambridge, Mass. Shares of Biogen and other drugmakers researching Alzheimer’s disease soared early Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2022, after Japan’s Eisai Co. said its potential treatment appeared to slow the fatal disease’s progress in a late-stage study. Eisai announced results late Tuesday from a global study of nearly 1,800 people with early-stage Alzheimer’s (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)

VIDEO: Alzheimer’s drug shows promise in early results of study

Patient decline reduced by 27% in initial study

FILE — The Biogen Inc., headquarters is shown March 11, 2020, in Cambridge, Mass. Shares of Biogen and other drugmakers researching Alzheimer’s disease soared early Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2022, after Japan’s Eisai Co. said its potential treatment appeared to slow the fatal disease’s progress in a late-stage study. Eisai announced results late Tuesday from a global study of nearly 1,800 people with early-stage Alzheimer’s (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)
From left to right, U2 singer Bono, Philanthropist and Co-Chairman of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, and France’s President Emmanuel Macron congratulate each other on stage during the Global Fund to Fight AIDS event at the Lyon’s congress hall, central France, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Laurent Cipriani

Advocates say Canada should commit $1.2 billion to fight against AIDS, TB and malaria

Investment, with other countries’ help, could save 20 million lives over next few years: advocates

From left to right, U2 singer Bono, Philanthropist and Co-Chairman of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, and France’s President Emmanuel Macron congratulate each other on stage during the Global Fund to Fight AIDS event at the Lyon’s congress hall, central France, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Laurent Cipriani
This March 2002 file photo shows a deer tick under a microscope in the entomology lab at the University of Rhode Island in South Kingstown, R.I. Lyme disease has settled so deeply into parts of Canada many public health units now just assume if you get bitten by a tick, you should be treated for lyme disease. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP/Victoria Arocho

Online map tracks B.C.’s high-risk Lyme disease zones

About 1 in 100 ticks carry Lyme disease in B.C.

This March 2002 file photo shows a deer tick under a microscope in the entomology lab at the University of Rhode Island in South Kingstown, R.I. Lyme disease has settled so deeply into parts of Canada many public health units now just assume if you get bitten by a tick, you should be treated for lyme disease. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP/Victoria Arocho
Necrotizing fasciitis, a disease that is difficult and expensive to treat and often fatal, has cropped up in six dogs in Nanaimo, Parksville and Qualicum Beach since October. (Stock photo)

Vancouver Island veterinarian issues alert about flesh-eating disease in dogs

Six cases of necrotizing fasciitis reported on central Island since the fall

Necrotizing fasciitis, a disease that is difficult and expensive to treat and often fatal, has cropped up in six dogs in Nanaimo, Parksville and Qualicum Beach since October. (Stock photo)
Avian flu has been detected in the Comox Valley. (Black Press file)

Vancouver Island egg producer taking measures against avian flu

Cat and Crow Farm owners warned of H5N1 in the area

Avian flu has been detected in the Comox Valley. (Black Press file)
The Global Alliance to End Parkinson’s Disease is marking the 2022 World Parkinson’s Day with the launch of a new international symbol of awareness, “The Spark.” (Courtesy the Global Alliance to End Parkinson’s Disease)

‘We need some urgency behind this’: B.C. advocate calls for action on World Parkinson’s Day

New ‘spark’ symbol released to inspire conversation, awareness around growing disease

The Global Alliance to End Parkinson’s Disease is marking the 2022 World Parkinson’s Day with the launch of a new international symbol of awareness, “The Spark.” (Courtesy the Global Alliance to End Parkinson’s Disease)
Using a specialized chamber, UVic microbiology professor Caroline Cameron works with the bacterium that causes syphilis. She’s researching a better diagnostic test and vaccine for the STI. (Courtesy UVic Photo Services)

UVic researcher working to develop syphilis vaccine after spike in new cases

More than 1,400 B.C. residents contracted the STI in 2021

Using a specialized chamber, UVic microbiology professor Caroline Cameron works with the bacterium that causes syphilis. She’s researching a better diagnostic test and vaccine for the STI. (Courtesy UVic Photo Services)
Members of the Parkinson Wellness Project take part in an exercise class, weeks before the centre’s closure in 2020 due to the pandemic. (Black Press Media file photo)

Parkinson Wellness Project bringing unparalleled care back to Victoria

Therapeutic fitness sessions, educational opportunities make a ‘significant difference’ for clients

Members of the Parkinson Wellness Project take part in an exercise class, weeks before the centre’s closure in 2020 due to the pandemic. (Black Press Media file photo)
Graeme Johnston of Denman Island has been very ill after exposure to bacteria more typically found in tropical waters. Photo supplied

Denman Island man’s infection from rare bacteria raising questions

Graeme Johnston was likely exposed in ocean after suffering leg wound, says wife

Graeme Johnston of Denman Island has been very ill after exposure to bacteria more typically found in tropical waters. Photo supplied
This photograph of a computer screen during a virtual interview on April 9, 2021, shows Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, right, as he sits with his wife Fran DeWine while she holds a printed copy of the Yellow Springs News issue page from April 28, 1955 that shows DeWine as a then second-grader, while receiving his polio vaccination. Tens of millions of today’s older Americans lived through the polio epidemic, their childhood summers dominated by concern about the virus. Some parents banned their kids from public swimming pools and neighborhood playgrounds and avoided large gatherings. Some of those from the polio era are sharing their memories with today’s youngsters as a lesson of hope for the battle against COVID-19. Soon after polio vaccines became widely available, U.S. cases and death tolls plummeted to hundreds a year, then dozens in the 1960s, and to U.S. eradication in 1979.(AP Photo/Dan Sewell)

Polio: When vaccines and re-emergence were just as daunting

Survivors sharing their memories with today’s younger people as a lesson of hope

This photograph of a computer screen during a virtual interview on April 9, 2021, shows Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, right, as he sits with his wife Fran DeWine while she holds a printed copy of the Yellow Springs News issue page from April 28, 1955 that shows DeWine as a then second-grader, while receiving his polio vaccination. Tens of millions of today’s older Americans lived through the polio epidemic, their childhood summers dominated by concern about the virus. Some parents banned their kids from public swimming pools and neighborhood playgrounds and avoided large gatherings. Some of those from the polio era are sharing their memories with today’s youngsters as a lesson of hope for the battle against COVID-19. Soon after polio vaccines became widely available, U.S. cases and death tolls plummeted to hundreds a year, then dozens in the 1960s, and to U.S. eradication in 1979.(AP Photo/Dan Sewell)
Young girls are shown in the Polio girls’ ward at Sick Kids Hospital in a 1937 handout photo in Toronto. The mystery illness that paralyzed and killed mostly children across Canada came in waves that built for nearly four decades before a vaccine introduced in 1955 put an end to the suffering. That was too late for 14-year-old Miki Boleen who contracted polio for a second time in 1953, perplexing doctors who believed “the crippler” could not strike the same patient twice. Boleen, now 80, is hoping for a vaccine for COVID-19 as she reflects on the fear that spread with outbreaks of polio. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO, Sick Kids Hospital *MANDATORY CREDIT*

Survivors who missed out on polio vaccine hope for breakthrough against COVID-19

An estimated 11,000 people in Canada were left paralyzed by polio between 1949 and 1954

Young girls are shown in the Polio girls’ ward at Sick Kids Hospital in a 1937 handout photo in Toronto. The mystery illness that paralyzed and killed mostly children across Canada came in waves that built for nearly four decades before a vaccine introduced in 1955 put an end to the suffering. That was too late for 14-year-old Miki Boleen who contracted polio for a second time in 1953, perplexing doctors who believed “the crippler” could not strike the same patient twice. Boleen, now 80, is hoping for a vaccine for COVID-19 as she reflects on the fear that spread with outbreaks of polio. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO, Sick Kids Hospital *MANDATORY CREDIT*
Calla Judson was diagnosed with Lyme disease after being bitten by a tick in eastern Ontario. (Provided by Laura Judson)

Greater Victoria mom warns of tick bites after three-year-old daughter diagnosed with Lyme disease

Ticks are most likely to bite in the spring, from March to June

Calla Judson was diagnosed with Lyme disease after being bitten by a tick in eastern Ontario. (Provided by Laura Judson)
Shows are going on as scheduled currently at the Royal Theatre (above) and McPherson Playhouse in Victoria, with added precautionary disinfecting of surfaces being undertaken to reduce the risk to patrons of contracting COVID-19. Black Press file photo

COVID-19: Precautions being taken, Victoria shows going on so far

Live performance venues ramp up theatre sanitizing measures to help prevent spread of virus

Shows are going on as scheduled currently at the Royal Theatre (above) and McPherson Playhouse in Victoria, with added precautionary disinfecting of surfaces being undertaken to reduce the risk to patrons of contracting COVID-19. Black Press file photo
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