Browse "Health & Medicine"

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E. coli Infection in Canada

Every year, approximately 470 Canadians are infected with E. coli bacteria, which can cause severe illness and, in a small minority of cases, death. Though the illness has been called “hamburger disease,” based on its association with ground beef patties containing infection-causing E. coli, it can be transmitted through a variety of other foods, untreated water and contact with the fecal matter of infected people and animals. Several deadly, high-profile E. coli outbreaks have occurred in Canada since the 1980s. They have resulted in greater public awareness, as well as changes in regulations and health practices.

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Health-care Rankings

I think it is obvious that when you're spending $80 billion a year as Canadians do on health care, there's a need to know more about what we're getting for our money. - Health Minister Allan Rock, Feb.This article was originally published in Maclean's Magazine on June 7, 1999

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Health Care Reform

Health care reform, driven by a desire to contain costs, has become a common feature of the Canadian political landscape in the 1990s. Indeed, many believe that it has already had a significant impact on the quality of the Canadian health care system.

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Health Officials Divided over Avian Flu

FOR MONTHS now the warnings have been relentless: the avian flu, rampaging through Southeast Asia, could morph into some sort of monstrous microbe. Tens of millions of people could die, say the experts at no less esteemed institutions than the World Health Organization and the U.S.This article was originally published in Maclean's Magazine on March 21, 2005

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Health Policy

Canada's national health-insurance program (also called medicare) is designed to ensure that every resident of Canada receives medical care and hospital treatment, the cost of which is paid through general taxes or through compulsory health-insurance premiums. Medicare developed in 2 stages.

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Hearing Loss

Any person living in Canada, regardless of age, gender, ethnic background, geographic location, occupation, educational background or socio-economic status, can experience hearing loss.

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Heart Disease

In industrial countries more people die from diseases of the heart and blood vessels than from any other single cause.

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Héma-Québec

Héma-Québec is a Canadian nonprofit organization that serves as the primary blood authority in the province of Quebec. Its role and mission are nearly identical to that of Canadian Blood Services, though its work is focused exclusively in Quebec. Though it is separate from Canadian Blood Services, the two organizations cooperate and coordinate with one another and together form an integral part of Canada’s health-care system. Both are responsible for ensuring a steady supply of blood, plasma and other blood products for Canadian health-care needs.

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Hepatitis C Package Controversy

From the moment he first stood in the House of Commons in 1993 as a rookie MP and cabinet minister, Allan Rock claimed to be repulsed by the Kabuki ritual of parliamentary Question Period.

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High Cost of Healing

Despite how it may seem some days as the public tunes into the debate over health-care funding, governments in Canada have not turned off the tap. Canadians spent an estimated $76.6 billion on health care in 1997, up from $75.This article was originally published in Maclean's Magazine on June 15, 1998

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High-Tech Artificial Limbs

This article was originally published in Maclean’s magazine on March 13, 1995. Partner content is not updated. Adele Fifield was just 13 years old when a doctor told her that she had cancer in her knee - and that surgeons would have to amputate her left leg. "My initial reaction was disbelief," recalls Fifield. "For days, my ears seemed to ring from the shock.

Timelines

History of Health and Healthcare in Canada

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History of Medicine to 1950

The theory and practice of medicine in Canada changed significantly from the 16th to the 20th century, with important developments in medical education and regulation, understanding of anatomy and disease, public health and immunization, and pharmacology.

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History of Veterinary Medicine

The healing of ANIMAL and human ailments has been a preoccupation of humans for centuries. Human MEDICINE became professionalized much before veterinary medicine, which did not become institutionalized until the opening of veterinary schools in France at Lyons (1761) and Alfort (1766).

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HIV Striking Straight Young Women

KAITLIN MORRISON LOST her virginity at 13 and, she says, "it was downhill from there." At 14, she left her parents' home in Port McNeill, B.C., on the northeast coast of Vancouver Island. She was a "party girl" and a "real rebel," she says, heavy into drugs (never needles, though).This article was originally published in Maclean's Magazine on May 30, 2005