Don't let public health fall victim to boom and bust cycles: Ontario's top doctor
Ontario can't let public health preparedness fall by the wayside again once COVID-19 fades from memory because the arrival of the next pandemic is not a question of if, but when, the chief medical officer of health said in his annual report.
Dr. Kieran Moore released the report Tuesday, the first one from that office since the pandemic hit, and in it he stressed the need for Ontario to maintain its investment in public health preparedness, including in workforce, testing, surveillance and addressing socioeconomic inequities.
"It seems impossible that we could forget the hard lessons that COVID-19 taught us about the importance of being prepared. But history has often proved otherwise," the report said.
"Memories fade, life goes on, and societies become complacent about a theoretical future threat. But we no longer live in a time when future disease threats are theoretical. The emergence of new pathogens, and the resurgence of old ones mean we now live in a time when we must be constantly vigilant."
People may not want to hear about another pandemic right now, Moore acknowledged, but it is important in the long term.
"I was on the expert panel of SARS-1 in 2004 and saw the enthusiasm of government to create Public Health Ontario, to improve our responsiveness, but then the interest faded relatively quickly, within three to five years," he said in an interview.
"Then H1N1 in 2009, the same happened. I don't want to see any decrease in our level of preparedness. I want us to maintain the gains that we've achieved as a province, so that we can try to mitigate the unintended and negative consequences of any infectious disease threat or pandemic."
Moore said he plans to publish a separate annual report, starting in about October, on the state of the province's pandemic preparedness.
Among the priorities highlighted in Moore's report are to strengthen testing, surveillance and data systems.
During the pandemic, some progress was made to integrate vaccination and case and contact management data, but the resulting system – COVAX – can only be used for COVID-19, the report said. It couldn't be adapted for mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, when it emerged last year.
"Public health agencies had to revert to cumbersome, time-consuming manual processes for case and contact investigations and vaccinations, and mpox case and vaccination data cannot be easily linked," the report said.
COVAX set the standard by which all vaccine information should be available for all Ontarians and government is working "diligently" to bring that to fruition, Moore said.
"The next piece is having the electronic data from laboratory testing feed into our case and contact management system and that is progressing well," he said.
"But it's progressing well for COVID. We'd like it to be able to be enacted for all the other major pathogens like measles or polio or mpox and have a really up-to-date electronic suite of tools to enable public health to respond to any infectious disease threat."
As well, the province doesn't have systems to automatically report hospitalizations and deaths of people with "diseases of public health significance," the report said.
"As a result, public health agencies had to use labour-intensive manual processes to assess the number of individuals with COVID-19 who had been hospitalized, were in the intensive care unit, or had died due to COVID-19."
COVID-19 test requisitions were also being completed by hand, leading in some cases to delayed or missing results, the report said.
Another priority in the report is ensuring health equity. Communities with a low socioeconomic status or with a higher proportion of immigrants, Black people and other racialized populations had a higher incidence of COVID-19 cases and deaths and faced greater barriers to accessing COVID-19 vaccines, the report said.
Ontario should develop systems to support the "responsible and respectful collection, linkage, governance and use" of health outcome data, including information such as age, gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, language, income and occupation to help the public health sector identify and address health inequities, the report said.
As well, the public health sector doesn't have adequate surge capacity, the report said. The workforce needs to be cross-trained in skills such as vaccination, case and contact management and infection prevention and control so all workers can step into those roles if need be, the report said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 7, 2023.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Why these immigrants to Canada say they're thinking about leaving, or have already moved on
For some immigrants, their dreams of permanently settling in Canada have taken an unexpected twist.
DEVELOPING Live updates from the Trump hush money trial: Stormy Daniels, bookkeeper testify
Adult film star Stormy Daniels is on the stand a second time Thursday as former U.S. president Donald Trump’s hush money case continues in Manhattan. Follow live updates here.
Ontario family receives massive hospital bill as part of LTC law, refuses to pay
A southwestern Ontario woman has received an $8,400 bill from a hospital in Windsor, Ont., after she refused to put her mother in a nursing home she hated -- and she says she has no intention of paying it.
Here are the ultraprocessed foods you most need to avoid, according to a 30-year study
Studies have shown that ultraprocessed foods can have a detrimental impact on health. But 30 years of research show they don’t all have the same impact.
Ontario man frustrated after $3,500 paving job leaves driveway in shambles
An Ontario man considering having his driveway paved received a quote from a company for $7,000, but then, another paver in the neighbourhood knocked on his door and offered half that rate.
BREAKING Sheldon Keefe out as head coach of Toronto Maple Leafs
The Toronto Maple Leafs have fired head coach Sheldon Keefe. The team made the announcement Thursday after the Original Six franchise lost to the Boston Bruins in seven games in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Boeing 737 catches fire and skids off the runway at a Senegal airport, injuring 10 people
A Boeing 737-300 plane carrying 85 people skidded off a runway at the airport in Dakar, Senegal's capital, injuring 10 people, according to the transport minister, an airline safety group and footage from a passenger that showed the aircraft on fire.
Breast cancer screening should start at age 40, Canadian Cancer Society says
The Canadian Cancer Society says all provinces and territories should lower the starting age for breast cancer screening to 40.
Man accused of killing two children at Quebec daycare to stand trial in April 2025
The man accused of murdering two children and injuring six others after a city bus crashed into a Montreal-area daycare is scheduled to stand trial over five weeks beginning in April 2025.