Most of Canada to receive emergency alert test today
The federal government will test its capacity to issue emergency alerts today, with the exception of Ontario, where the test will take place on May 15.
Adults over 50 who have had COVID-19 are more likely to experience a shingles outbreak, according to new research.
A study published in the journal Open Forum Infectious Diseases last month looked at data from 400,000 people who had been infected with COVID-19 and 1.6 million who had not. It found adults over 50 who have had COVID-19 are 15 per cent more likely to develop shingles within six months. The risk grows to 21 per cent for those who have been hospitalized with COVID-19.
Shingles, also known as herpes zoster, is a viral infection characterized by painful blisters that usually appear on one side of the torso. An infection can take as long as five weeks to clear up.
Shingles is caused by the varicella zoster virus, the strain of herpes which causes chickenpox. After someone has had chickenpox, the virus can remain dormant in the body for decades before reactivating to cause shingles, explained Dr. Kashif Pirzada, a Toronto-based emergency physician.
"It never fully leaves your body. Your immune system is keeping it in check like a tug-of-war," Pirzada told CTV’s Your Morning on Tuesday. "If you have a big shock to your immune system like a COVID infection, or if you're not sleeping, you're not eating well...then it could flare up and cause shingles."
In rare cases, the varicella zoster virus can also cause a neurological disorder known as Ramsay Hunt Syndrome. This is a form of facial paralysis that can occur when a shingles outbreak affects the facial nerve near one of the ears. Pirzada said its effects can be devastating. Earlier this month, a diagnosis of Ramsay Hunt Syndrome forced Justin Bieber to cancel a string of tour dates.
"It affects your balance, your hearing, your taste, the movements of your face, even closing your eyes," Pirzada. "And the recovery is long. If you start antivirals early, you can have a better course. But the recovery can take months, even a couple years."
Right now, Pirzada said, the best defence against shingles for people who have already had chicken pox is the shingles vaccine.
While the chicken pox vaccine has been available to children in Canada since the year 2000, the shingles vaccine is currently only recommended for adults over 50. Some provinces offer the vaccine at no cost to seniors, and advocates want to see the rest of the country follow suit.
The National Advisory Committee on Immunization is also considering recommending the vaccine for anyone 18 and older who is immunodeficient or immunocompromised.
As for claims circulating online that the COVID-19 vaccine causes shingles outbreaks, Pirzada said they're not true.
"You're going to win [Lotto] 649 a couple times before you get shingles from the vaccine," he said.
The federal government will test its capacity to issue emergency alerts today, with the exception of Ontario, where the test will take place on May 15.
Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, has made headlines with his recent arrival in the U.K., this time to celebrate all things Invictus. But upon the prince landing in the U.K., we have already had confirmation that King Charles III won't have time to see his youngest son during his brief visit.
An Ontario man found out that a line of credit he thought was insured actually isn't after his wife of 50 years died.
After more than a century, Boy Scouts of America is rebranding as Scouting America, another major shakeup for an organization that once proudly resisted change.
A first-of-its-kind Canadian research study is working towards a major medical breakthrough for a brain disorder, believed to be caused by repeated head injuries, that can only be detected after death.
In March, Indonesian officials and local fishermen rescued 75 people from the overturned hull of a boat off the coast of Indonesia. Until now, little was known about why the boat capsized.
With Donald Trump sitting just feet away, Stormy Daniels testified Tuesday at the former president's hush money trial about a sexual encounter the porn actor says they had in 2006 that resulted in her being paid to keep silent during the presidential race 10 years later.
An Ontario woman said it would have been impossible to buy a house without her mother – an anecdote that animates the fact that over 17 per cent of Canadian homeowners born in the ‘90s own their property with their parents, according to a new report.
Canadian immigrants threatened by hostile regimes are urging parliamentarians to quickly pass the 'Countering Foreign Interference Act' so they can feel safe living in their adopted home.
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
A P.E.I. lighthouse and a New Brunswick river are being honoured in a Canada Post series.
An Ontario man says he paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on a popular travel website -- but the listing was fake.
Whether passionate about Poirot or hungry for Holmes, Winnipeg mystery obsessives have had a local haunt for over 30 years in which to search out their latest page-turners.
Eighty-two-year-old Susan Neufeldt and 90-year-old Ulrich Richter are no spring chickens, but their love blossomed over the weekend with their wedding at Pine View Manor just outside of Rosthern.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.