Pathfinder
Editor, Senior Moderator
Tuesday, December 22, 2009 11:18 AM
Canada?s cure for the common cold: H1N1
Jane Taber
An unexpected positive outcome of the H1N1 pandemic is that common colds and food-borne illnesses are on the wane compared to other years, says Canada?s Chief Public Health Officer David Butler- Jones.
?Other infectious diseases, other respiratory diseases like colds are spread very similarly (like H1N1) in terms of rubbing hands, rubbing eyes, nose, mouth, putting our fingers in our mouth as well as food borne illnesses,? says Dr. Butler-Jones in an interview today.
?So the food borne outbreaks, we seem to be seeing fewer.?
He said that he has no statistics. Yet monitoring is being done, which shows that fewer Canadians seem to be suffering from the common cold and also from food poisoning.
?It?s one of those things though that is difficult to prove but it is something that we?ve seen,? he said. ?Every morning we look at diseases and outbreaks around the world and what is happening in Canada and there just doesn?t seem to be as much.?
He described as ?phenomenal? the change in behaviour ? coughing into your sleeve, staying home from work if you are sick and washing your hands ? that has come about in just a couple of months as a result of public health campaigns.
?It is an interesting observation and speaks well to just what Canadians have done,? he says.
Indeed, he said the idea of someone coughing into their hands now seems unusual. The sleeve is now everyone?s first choice.
?When you think of how difficult it is to change behaviour that actually is a phenomenal thing,? he said. So far, he says, more than 40 per cent of Canadians have been vaccinated against H1N1 but he is urging everyone to get a shot because you just don?t when or where it could hit you.
?One of the key things about this vaccine is that is not only for our own benefit but for those around us,? he says. Dr. Butler-Jones notes that ?in general? Atlantic Canadians and those in the North have done better at getting themselves immunized than those in central Canada.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/blog...cure-for-the-common-cold-h1n1/article1408723/
Canada?s cure for the common cold: H1N1
Jane Taber
An unexpected positive outcome of the H1N1 pandemic is that common colds and food-borne illnesses are on the wane compared to other years, says Canada?s Chief Public Health Officer David Butler- Jones.
?Other infectious diseases, other respiratory diseases like colds are spread very similarly (like H1N1) in terms of rubbing hands, rubbing eyes, nose, mouth, putting our fingers in our mouth as well as food borne illnesses,? says Dr. Butler-Jones in an interview today.
?So the food borne outbreaks, we seem to be seeing fewer.?
He said that he has no statistics. Yet monitoring is being done, which shows that fewer Canadians seem to be suffering from the common cold and also from food poisoning.
?It?s one of those things though that is difficult to prove but it is something that we?ve seen,? he said. ?Every morning we look at diseases and outbreaks around the world and what is happening in Canada and there just doesn?t seem to be as much.?
He described as ?phenomenal? the change in behaviour ? coughing into your sleeve, staying home from work if you are sick and washing your hands ? that has come about in just a couple of months as a result of public health campaigns.
?It is an interesting observation and speaks well to just what Canadians have done,? he says.
Indeed, he said the idea of someone coughing into their hands now seems unusual. The sleeve is now everyone?s first choice.
?When you think of how difficult it is to change behaviour that actually is a phenomenal thing,? he said. So far, he says, more than 40 per cent of Canadians have been vaccinated against H1N1 but he is urging everyone to get a shot because you just don?t when or where it could hit you.
?One of the key things about this vaccine is that is not only for our own benefit but for those around us,? he says. Dr. Butler-Jones notes that ?in general? Atlantic Canadians and those in the North have done better at getting themselves immunized than those in central Canada.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/blog...cure-for-the-common-cold-h1n1/article1408723/