News

Ottawa Public Health’s weekly reports on seasonal influenza

Ottawa Public Health’s weekly flu report is now called the Ottawa Public Health Respiratory and Enteric Surveillance Report and can be found on the Infectious Diseases page.

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UPDATE: Avian influenza A(H7N9) virus

The World Health Organization (WHO) continues to receive reports of laboratory-confirmed cases of Asian lineage avian influenza A(H7N9) virus from Chinese authorities.

• There are a number of avian influenza A(H7N9) virus strains circulating globally.
• Regarding Asian lineage avian influenza A(H7N9), the WHO has stated that the number of human infections and geographical distribution in the fifth epidemic wave (i.e., onset since October 1, 2016) is greater than in earlier waves.
• While recent...

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Lyme Disease Resources for Physicians Available at ottawapublichealth.ca

Key Messages:

• Web-based Lyme disease resources for physicians and for patients are available from Ottawa Public Health
• Includes recommendations for the consideration of post-exposure prophylaxis for persons on whom a blacklegged tick was feeding

In April, in advance of the 2017 tick season, Ottawa Public Health (OPH) informed Ottawa health care providers that the prevalence in Ottawa of Borrelia burgdorferi (the agent of Lyme disease) in local Ixodes scapularis (the blacklegged tick vector) was now high...

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Immunization Updates

Key Messages:

• HPV9 (Gardasil®9) vaccine now publicly-funded for immunization of Grade 7 students, and men who have sex with men.
• There is a new process for obtaining non-medical exemptions for immunization required for school attendance.
• Upcoming school immunization assessment and suspension dates are provided below.
• Universal Influenza Immunization Program (UIIP) update
• DTaP-IPV (Quadracel® and Infanrix®-IPV) are being replaced with DTaP-IPV-Hib (Pediacel®)

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Lyme Disease Post Exposure Prophylaxis

Lyme disease ­– The prevalence in Ottawa of Borrelia burgdorferi (the agent of Lyme disease) in local Ixodes scapularis (the blacklegged tick vector) is now high enough that Ottawa Public Health (OPH) is recommending post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) under select circumstances.

In preparation for the 2017 tick season, OPH has revised its information for physicians [Lyme disease prophylaxis: New recommendations for Ottawa PDF]; information related to PEP is summarized in this update.  OPH has also...

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