Category Archives: Health

WHO works to spread COVID vaccine technology to more nations

GENEVA (AP) — The World Health Organization is creating a global training center to help poorer countries make vaccines, antibodies and cancer treatments using the messenger RNA technology that has successfully been used to make COVID-19 vaccines. At a press briefing in Geneva on Wednesday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the new hub will […]

Study finds that more serious COVID-19 infections led to more nightmares

MONTREAL – A new international study involving Canadian researchers has found that people who had COVID-19 during the pandemic’s first wave were more susceptible to nightmares — and the worse their infection, the more bad dreams they experienced. The study found that, for some, the experience of a COVID-19 infection was as intense as a […]

Researchers find potential to create universal type O blood organs for transplants

Elizabeth Ostrander spent two years on an organ transplant wait list, worrying about her oxygen levels any time she left home and wondering if she’d ever get the lungs she needed. The Niagara, Ont., resident, who was diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in 2016, underwent a successful double-lung transplant in November. But she […]

Pandemic highlights problems in access to mental health, psychological services

VANCOUVER – As a registered psychologist who specializes in stress and anxiety, Dr. Melanie Badali says it’s been difficult to watch some of her wait lists grow over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. Two years in, many are dealing with built-up anxiety and depression, and Badali said she wants to help. “It feels horrible […]

Brain injury endemic among homeless populations: Vancouver research

VANCOUVER – Traumatic brain injury is so common among the homeless that prevention should be prioritized for people facing multiple challenges and worse outcomes compared with “affluent populations,” says the lead author of a study in Vancouver that monitored participants for symptoms every month for a year. Tiffany O’Connor said rates of brain injury are […]

Experts say vaccine passports can be reassessed, but urge caution in scrapping them

As several provinces toy with scrapping their COVID-19 vaccine mandates, medical experts allow it may be time to start reconsidering the policy – but caution against dropping the measure too soon. Prevalence of cases among both vaccinated and unvaccinated Canadians has led to calls to nix the vaccine passport system by some who question whether […]