Aboriginal Health News: 10/2009

Oct 30, 2009

Canadians better-informed, healthier than 10 years ago: report

Canadians are living longer, taking more drugs and are more informed about the country's health-care system than a decade ago, according to a new report.
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Oct 29, 2009

Métis federation founder 'a great rock'

THE flag of the Manitoba Métis Federation will fly at half mast this week in honour of Edward Head, the founder and former president of the federation.
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Western Diet Fuels Spike In Blood Pressure Of Canada's Inuit

A move from a traditional diet to the sodium-laden Western diet is fuelling a spike in the blood pressure of the Inuit in Canada's North, Dr. Marie-Ludivine Chateau-Degat told the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress 2009, co-hosted by the Heart and Stroke Foundation and the Canadian Cardiovascular Society.
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Oct 27, 2009

New Brunswick Aboriginal Woman will guard the Olympic Flame

A young aboriginal woman from northwestern New Brunswick is going to Greece next week to get the Olympic flame.
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48 confirmed cases of H1N1 virus in southeast Saskatchewan

The H1N1 virus in southeast Saskatchewan’s Sun Country Health Region is hitting hard at six area schools and is affecting a number of teenagers in 13 communities.
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Oct 26, 2009

Kugluktuk’s alcohol controls make for lower crime rate

Nearly two years to the day have passed since people in Kugluktuk voted in favour of an alcohol education committee, just about everyone says the most westerly community in Nunavut is doing much better than before.
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Country to begin largest mass inoculation in history, some MPs torn about getting vaccine

The federal government approved the H1N1 swine flu vaccine last week and shipped more than two million doses across the country for what will be the largest mass inoculation in Canadian history, but some MPs are still torn on whether to get the vaccine.
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Albertans Urged To Limit Consumption Of Some Species Of Fish

Alberta’s Chief Medical Officer of Health has issued a public health advisory that recommends people avoid or limit their consumption of some species of fish caught from specific bodies of water in Alberta.
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Swine flu immunization underway

The H1N1 influenza vaccine is now available across most of Canada to health-care workers and people considered at a higher risk for complications from the respiratory illness.
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Health habits vary by region: Ailments also were worse in some areas of the country, especially First Nations communities

Quebecers eat more fruits and veggies. Albertans believe they're the healthiest. British Columbians exercise the most and are the most likely to ask you to stop smoking in their house.
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Oct 23, 2009

New diabetes guidelines set for health providers

The International Diabetes Federation has released three sets of guidelines for health providers aimed at improving patient care and stemming the growing worldwide incidence of the disease.The clinical guidelines dealing with pregnancy, oral health and patient monitoring of blood-sugar levels were announced Thursday at the World Diabetes Congress in Montreal.Read more>>

(MB) First Nations grapple with H1N1 shot plan

Aboriginal people are a priority group to be vaccinated against swine flu, but that could be a challenge in northern Manitoba where reserves are spread far and wide.
"There's about 64,000 people in northern Manitoba First Nations alone … so which areas are we going to be hitting? That's one of the things that we need to clarify," said David Harper, Grand Chief of the Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak, an organization representing most First Nations communities in northern Manitoba.
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Oct 22, 2009

Costly shots urged to protect Inuit infants from RSV

All Inuit babies should routinely get a costly series of injections to protect them against the respiratory syncytial virus, the Canadian Pediatric Association says in a new set of recommendations.
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Unique diabetes program has big impact on B.C. First Nation

In a report to be released Monday to the World Diabetes Congress in Montreal, they detail how the program has enabled a small aboriginal community in northern B.C. to get diabetes under much better control.
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Oct 21, 2009

Canadian H1N1 vaccine approved

Canada has ordered 50 million doses from GlaxoSmithKline that are being produced at the company's Ste-Foy, Que., plant for what Dr. David Butler-Jones, Canada's chief public health officer, has described as "the largest immunization campaign in history."
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Seminar tackles First Nations diabetes

Lucia Bartleman remembers her grandmother harvesting and drying clams to save for later. Her job was to dig out the fat butter clams and to pluck the ducks her brother and father once hunted.A lot of that’s been lost now, said the Pauquachin First Nation health supervisor.“Our people used to eat things like fish, deer meat and clams,” Bartleman said. “We never had hamburgers ... it’s more foods from grocery stores that you see people buying now.” Read more>>

Oct 20, 2009

Emergency Service To First Nations In Canada To Improve - Government of Canada

The Government of Canada and the Province of Manitoba today announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that marks another step forward in improving delivery of emergency management programs in First Nation communities.Read more>>

Provinces and territories receive first shipments of the H1N1 vaccine: official

The first shipments of the H1N1 vaccine have already reached the provinces and territories to allow local health officials immediate access to the vaccine once it is approved, an official with the Public Health Agency of Canada said Sunday.
News reports Sunday said the federal government is expected to approve the vaccine as early as this week and have it ready for distribution within a couple of days.Read more>>

Oct 19, 2009

Unique diabetes program has big impact on B.C. First Nation

In a report to be released Monday to the World Diabetes Congress in Montreal, [Chief Robert Joseph, Dr. Keith Dawson and his partner] detail how the program has enabled a small aboriginal community in northern B.C. to get diabetes under much better control.The unlikely trio joined forces to create Diabetes and My Nation, one of the few intervention programs that has been shown to make a real difference in fighting what Joseph describes as the "monstrous" problem in aboriginal communities, which have diabetes rates of up to five times the national average. Read more>>

First Nations' liquor-related deaths five times higher than others in B. C

Oct 16, 2009

Local control over Aboriginal health care improves outcomes, study indicates

As officials scramble to explain why Canadian Aboriginal people are especially vulnerable to pandemic (H1N1) 2009, health scientists in Manitoba and British Columbia have compiled striking evidence that First Nations control of health care leads to better health.
The findings, which were presented at the Canadian Public Health Association conference in Winnipeg, Manitoba, last June, also indicate that federal reluctance to invest in local nursing stations within First Nations communities impairs health outcomes and inflates costs to provincial health budgets. Read more>>

Oct 15, 2009

Song written for the missing and murdered Aboriginal women of Canada hits # 25 on the music charts

I Pray, a song written for the missing and murdered Aboriginal women of Canada,is quickly climbing the music charts on NCI’s Aboriginal top 30 countdown in Canada.
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Funding for aboriginal diabetes program at risk

The P.E.I. Native Council is worried that the funding it relies on to operate its diabetes awareness program is about to run out.
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First Nations aid dwindling

Children’s aid societies helping First Nations children say they are stuck with the bulk of a $67 million province wide cash crunch along with communities in areas of the province hit hard by the economic downturn.
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Oct 14, 2009

Contaminants investigated in Couchiching First Nation reservation

Several residents who live on Harry’s Road off Highway 11 in the Couchiching First Nation reservation are looking for answers about contamination in their land and homes.Two of the families living there were recommended to move, but have since been told by Health Canada that it is safe to live on the site. And residents, and the company performing tests on the land, question the effects of the contamination on Rainy Lake and its fish. Read more>>

Oct 13, 2009

Nunavut's tough road ahead: removing cigarettes from mainstream culture

According to a 2007 Statistics Canada report, 68 per cent of people in Nunavut reported living in homes where smoking was banned indoors. Few imposed such a restriction a decade ago.Still, the government's public health message continues to be diluted by the sheer number of smokers in Nunavut: so many use tobacco that it is still perceived as an acceptable risk. Read more>>

First Nations must find ways to curb alcohol use: MD

Alcohol-related deaths among First Nations in B.C. are a staggering five times higher than for other British Columbians, says a prominent First Nations doctor, who argues aboriginal leaders need to start working on an alcohol strategy to save lives.
Dr. Evan Adams, aboriginal health physician adviser in the office of the Provincial Health Officer, believes First Nations need to get over their discomfort in talking about alcohol misuse. Read more>>

Diabetes a quiet and growing epidemic

Diabetes is linked to close to 40,000 deaths a year in Canada and thousands more people are maimed by the disease, which is overwhelming the meagre medical services in many remote communities. Unchecked, doctors fear the disease will swamp the health-care system. Part of the problem is that there is no microbe to blame for diabetes and no magic pill to cure it. Read more>>

Sugar babies: Diabetes taking toll on children

Across Canada, aboriginal children are developing Type 2 diabetes at a higher rate than the general population, as are youngsters of South Asian and Caribbean descent. The risk is highest in the Oji-Cree families seen in the Manitoba clinic. Read more>>

Doctors call Nunavut's alarming smoking rates 'a health crisis'

Nunavut's smoking rate is more than double the national average (22 per cent) and is considerably higher than those in the Northwest Territories (36 per cent) and Yukon (30 per cent).Today in Nunavut, young and old alike suffer from the territory's extreme smoking: The leading causes of death in Nunavut are cancer, respiratory disease and heart disease; smoking is a major risk factor in all of them. Read more>>

Oct 8, 2009

Flu kits flown to Manitoba First Nations

Flu-fighting supply kits will be delivered to every home in Manitoba First Nations communities, the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs said Wednesday.
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Mercury poison in country food could lead to more strokes, heart attacks

High levels of mercury in the blood of adults in Nunavik appear to be upping their blood pressure— which could be a cause for concern because high blood pressure can lead to heart attacks and strokes.
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Inuit sexual health conference underway in Iqaluit

Inuit leaders, policy makers and health-care officials from across Canada's North are in Iqaluit this week for a first-ever national conference on sexual health.
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Body bag probe found no 'ill will': Aglukkaq

An investigation into the recent shipment of body bags to remote First Nations communities has found Health Canada made a "clear overestimation" of the need in some cases, Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq said Wednesday.
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Vancouver, Urban Aboriginal Community Kitchen Garden. First Nations grow their own produce and harvest traditional foods.

Food sustainability for First Nations, says garden co-ordinator Mary Holmes, “is really food sovereignty. It’s people having access to food used in their traditional kitchens: salmon, berries and roots, things that make them feel connected to the land and each other.”
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Mercury poison in country food could lead to more strokes, heart attacks

Healthy Lifestyle Challenge produces positive results for First Nations residents

A gala conclusion of the six-month-long challenge held on Saturday at the Mississauga First Nation brought together many of the participants in the challenge, each eager to share their success story. For many of the participants, the challenge became a life-changing event in a very positive way.
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McGuinty government’s $4.2-million in funding cuts to First Nations child welfare agencies

Ontario’s NDP Leader Andrea Horwath says the McGuinty government’s $4.2-million in funding cuts to First Nations child welfare agencies must be reversed.
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Oct 7, 2009

Body bag probe found no 'ill will': Aglukkaq

H1N1 kits heading to Manitoba First Nations communities

The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs is shipping the first of 15,500 flu-preparedness kits to First Nations communities Wednesday.
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Inuit sexual health conference underway in Iqaluit

The National Inuit Policy Forum on Sexual Health, hosted by Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada, brings together delegates from Nunavut, the Nunavik in northern Quebec, the Nunatsiavut in Labrador and the Inuivialuit from the Northwest Territories.
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Missing, murdered aboriginal ‘sisters’ remembered in vigil

It was the fourth annual vigil to commemorate the more than 500 aboriginal women who have gone missing or have been murdered in the last 30 years. Research by the Native Women’s Association of Canada shows that most of these cases go unsolved, and that law enforcement can be slow to put resources into the investigations, particularly if the women had a history of drug use or prostitution. Human rights activists are calling for a national plan to deal with crime and violence against aboriginal women.

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Oct 6, 2009

Poverty, overcrowding in N. Ont. puts people at greater risk for H1N1: critics

Remote and First Nation communities in northern Ontario could be more vulnerable to the spread of swine flu this fall, critics say amid reports that a widely expected second wave of H1N1 may have already arrived in the province.Despite provincial assurances that preparations are underway, aboriginal leaders and opposition parties say poverty and overcrowding are creating dangerous situations on reserves and in far-flung communities with little access to doctors and nurses.

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Oct 5, 2009

Feed the children of Nunavut, report card urges

The Government of Nunavut should create school lunch and snack programs "immediately" to make sure Nunavut children get enough to eat, the Oct. 1 Qanukkanniq report card recommends.
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Oct 2, 2009

First Nations rally to save healing program

First Nations people are gathering at the Manitoba legislature on Thursday to protest the end of a program that provides counselling to former students of Indian residential schools.
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