![](https://www.ctvnews.ca/polopoly_fs/1.6946231.1719664723!/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_800/image.jpg)
WestJet cancels at least 150 flights following mechanics union strike
WestJet says it's cancelled at least 150 flights beginning Saturday after the union maintaining the airline's planes announced it went on strike hours earlier.
Top UN officials and health industry leaders are trying to tackle an alarming surge in tuberculosis, which is now killing more people worldwide than COVID-19 or AIDS. Among the problems: a high number of cases in conflict zones, including Ukraine and Sudan, where it's difficult to track down people with the disease and diagnose new sufferers.
Tuberculosis is the biggest infectious disease killer in the world today, taking the lives of around 4,400 people every day, including 700 children, Dr. Lucica Ditiu, executive director of the Stop TB Partnership, said before a hearing Monday to prepare for a high-level meeting in late September during the annual gathering of world leaders at the UN General Assembly.
Before COVID-19, which like TB is transmitted through the air, "we didn't see very dramatic cases of TB," she said, "but after COVID we saw a type of TB that we saw in...movies in which people spit blood and they are very weak, and so on."
Ditiu said the economic impact of COVID and conflicts, first and foremost in Ukraine but now also in Sudan, are having "a huge impact" on efforts to treat people with TB and diagnose new cases.
Ukraine has the highest number of estimated people with TB in the European region -- 34,000 -- and also a high number with drug-resistant TB, she said at a news conference last week.
"It's remarkable, the fact that the Ukrainian people are actually showing an amazing resilience in doing their best to maintain the services for TB," Ditiu said. "But obviously a lot of people left the country."
Nonetheless, she said, major efforts have been made to track down those with the disease, but what worries everyone is whether people in Ukraine have access to treatment.
In Sudan, 18,000 people received treatment for tuberculosis in 2021, according to the Stop TB Partnership, which is managed by the UN Office for Project Services and aims to achieve a world free of tuberculosis.
But Ditiu said the situation there for TB sufferers, because of the ongoing fighting and collapse of most of the health system, is "probably like a ticking bomb."
She noted how fast a COVID-19 vaccine was developed, in less than a year, and lamented that it has taken 19 years to get three or four vaccines for TB to phase 3 trials because of a lack of money.
"Very often, unfortunately, TB is very forgotten," she said, because "it affects usually people in the low-income countries with a lot of vulnerabilities."
Among the UN officials speaking at Monday afternoon's hearing are Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed and World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
There are also two panels: one on fast-tracking access to TB services and the other on mobilizing financing to ramp up the TB response and advance research and innovation. It includes the chief medical officer for BioNTech, which with Pfizer used messenger RNA technology to make their COVID vaccine.
Ditiu said BioNTech and a few other companies are looking into using mRNA technology for a TB vaccine, which she said would have a big impact in more quickly trying to reduce and end the disease,
WestJet says it's cancelled at least 150 flights beginning Saturday after the union maintaining the airline's planes announced it went on strike hours earlier.
Double check your sunscreen products before lathering up this long weekend, as Health Canada has recalled several lots across the country.
More than 100 people in Ottawa's west-end are in the process of receiving eviction notices to vacate their 50-year-old apartment building for renovations.
Are you retired and looking for some ideas to help make some extra money? Personal finance contributor Christopher Liew has some tips to help you earn some income in your golden years.
It was a battle ripped from the pages of a storybook: Ten soldiers held off hundreds of German troops to save a small French village in the First World War.
Is Canada's democracy truly under threat? Political scientists say while Canadian politics and institutions are facing a myriad of concerns, the situation isn't dire overall.
For many, the Canada Day long weekend is the official kick off of summer and many families will be spending time at a cottage.
A minivan slammed into a Long Island nail salon Friday, killing four people and injuring 9, a Suffolk County fire official said.
A sitting Liberal MP has written to the federal caucus to say he thinks Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should resign. 'For the future of our party and for the good of our country we need new leadership and a new direction,' said New Brunswick MP Wayne Long in the brief note.
A grandfather and grandson duo proudly graduated alongside each other at the same northern Manitoba school.
A large basking shark was captured close to the shoreline on Nova Scotia's Eastern Shore.
The world's largest hockey stick could soon become the world's most in-pieces hockey stick as a Vancouver Island community prepares to tear down and carve up the Canadian landmark.
For half a decade, a Saskatoon family has been trying to bring their orphaned niece to Canada, they say now it’s a matter of life or death.
The Winnipeg Art Gallery- Qaumajuq recently discovered that one piece in its collection is a fake and part of a massive art forgery ring that included more than 1,500 pieces.
Six-year-old Bruce Arthur Chang is the new grand champion of Canada in the UCMAS math competition, and says he is hoping to make a mark on the international stage.
Harold Brenton Anderson, who wore high heels for decades in Halifax and loved to travel, has died.
An Ottawa cat has morphed into a TikTok star, as he's slimming down from weighing 43 pounds.
Bill Neald is still living out his passion of playing baseball at the age of 90 in Regina’s Senior Mixed Slo-Pitch League.