Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
As Canadian hospitals deal with a wave of children infected with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), concern has grown about how the virus could also impact adults.
Young children, especially those under the age of four, have been most affected by RSV in recent weeks as hospitals have reported kids and infants arriving with high fevers or difficulty breathing. Additionally, a supply shortage of children's pain relievers has exacerbated long wait times for health care as parents flock to emergency rooms in search of aid for their children.
Now, doctors are concerned about the risk RSV can pose to seniors and other vulnerable adults.
Dr. Sumon Chakrabarti, an infectious disease physician at Trillium Health Partners in Mississauga, Ont., says RSV can show up in adults but it typically only has serious effects on seniors, those with chronic pre-existing conditions such as lung disease or adults who have a severely suppressed immune system due to cancer, for example.
"RSV can manifest in a person who's older and brittle and it makes them feverish, they get dehydrated, they get short of breath, and then they get admitted to hospital," Chakrabarti said in an interview with CTVNews.ca on Saturday.
As of Nov. 18, there have been 1,944 reported cases of RSV, maintaining the seven per cent positivity rate seen consistently since early November. While the data doesn't separate RSV infections by age group, the overall number of cases has been stabilizing, according to Canada's latest respiratory virus report.
For the vast majority of adults, RSV can present like a regular cold so they may not even realize they have the virus, said Chakrabarti.
"We've all been exposed to it multiple times and the thing is, it's indistinguishable from a cold," he said. In the majority of adults, it usually isn’t severe, he said.
Most adults have already been exposed to RSV before the COVID-19 pandemic, said Chakrabarti, and their immunity is stronger than that of an infant or an older adult with a weak immune system.
"A kid that is less than six months of age, or kids who haven't seen RSV at all in the last two and a half years, they were more susceptible because there's absolutely no immunity to it and that's why we saw what we did,” he said.
According to Dr. Dale Kalina, an infectious disease physician with Joseph Brant Hospital in Burlington, Ont., RSV is found in six to eight per cent of adults over the age of 50 who have been hospitalized for respiratory illness.
Kalina said while he has yet to see severe adult hospital admissions with RSV this season, there have been more cases of children passing RSV along to their caregivers, in addition to other respiratory viruses.
"It is still spreading, both rhinovirus and RSV, and the flu and just the numbers of people that we're seeing with all of these respiratory viruses, particularly so early in the season, it is concerning," he told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview on Monday.
Though the wave of infected children with RSV is slowing down, Kalina said it's important to continue regular health practices to combat the spread of other viruses and help alleviate the strain on the already overwhelmed health-care system.
"It's not an isolated virus. It's something that's circulating in our community, and helping in one area will help others areas in the health-care system too," he said.
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Brad Marchand scored twice, including the winner in the third period, and added an assist as the Boston Bruins downed the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2 to take a 2-1 lead in their first-round playoff series Wednesday
Cuba's foreign affairs minister has apologized to a Montreal-area family after they were sent the wrong body following the death of a loved one.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
Canada's Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland was among the 1,700 delegates attending the two-day First Nations Major Projects Coalition (FNMPC) conference that concluded Tuesday in Toronto.
The daughter of a New Brunswick man recently exonerated from murder, is remembering her father as somebody who, despite a wrongful conviction, never became bitter or angry.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.