Thread by @adamadonaldson

Coming up at 2 pm, it's the April Board of Health Meeting. These is you're pre-game: guelphpolitico.ca/2023/03/31/mee…

Tech issues? Maybe. This is the Board of Health's first hybrid meeting, and I'm following along from home.

Never mind. Something is happening...

And now Chair Bridge has called the meeting to order!

It's worth noting that it seems like it's only media that area appearing at the meeting via Zoom. All members are live in the board room.

No Disclosure(s) of Pecuniary Interest.

Minutes from March 2023 passed unanimously.

We begin with the MoH update with Dr. Mercer. She starts will rabies and animal bites, in 2022 there were 700 animal bites investigated, most were dogs, but there were racoons, bats, rabbits and livestock. About 70+ people got rabies shot. Bats w/ rabies still turn up.

Mercer says we sometimes forget about rabies, and there have been some strains that have decreased, yet others persist. If you see a green packet, especially in rural areas, that's rabies vaccine bait for wild animals. (this is a provincial program)

The other thing Mercer wants to mention is avian flu, which has just been in the news again: cp24.com/news/pet-dog-d…

Mercer says they're monitoring things closely, and you normally see avian flu during this migration period as birds returning north and interact with other birds who stayed the winter. Public health isn't "overly" concerned, but they keep an eye out.

Mercer says that people may find dead birds out and about and says you should not handle one if you find it, and you should keep your pets away too. Bird-to-human transition tends to only happen with close contact involving live birds though.

Got backyard chickens? Keep an eye out for those interactions with wild birds because there's where bird flu happens. If your chickens are sick, take it seriously and get your birds tested at the vet just to be sure. Risk to humans is "very low" though.

For the record, there were two bats that test positive with rabies in 2022 in the region.

Next, three items on the consent agenda:

Member Manktelow asks about the future of COVID vaccinations. Mercer says that it looks like it's going to be part of our regular seasonal regiment, and predicts that you will get a fluVID shot (combination flu and COVID vaccine) every fall.

Mercer also says that the mRNA vaccines will be the common COVID shot type since they've proven adaptable and effective. Manufacturers are presently looking at what variants are going to prevalent. There were 2 bivalent vaxes available last year w/ similar outcomes.

Cllr Caton asks about the waining effects of the vaccine after 6 months. Mercer says that's why they're looking at a spring booster campaign for the older population. A report about vaccination in LTC and retirement homes is coming up.

Caton asks about the vulnerability of certain populations to long-COVID or post-COVID syndrome. Mercer says results depend on strain & when you got our last shot. Rates of PCS from Omicron were lower than from the Delta strain too. At a minimum, everyone should get annual boost.

Cllr Goller asks about Naloxone distribution, and GPL's main branch being turned down as a distribution point. What's the deal? Director of Community Health Rita Isley says a change is coming to June with other high-risk orgs being required, got have exact deets yet.

Goller asks about advocacy for other locations for naloxone kits. Isley says it's likely that advocates believe naloxone should be everywhere, but for now it's based on risks to the org. and comfort with having it on hand.

Goller asks about naloxone at community centres in Guelph. Isley says that's not part of the PH distribution plan, but that would be up to the individual municipalities.

Consent agenda approved unanimously.

Next: Trends in Reported Sexually Transmitted Infections in Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph: 2022. Mercer says she's struck by the changing trends over time; we used to regularly have zero cases of syphilis for example.

Bullet points from the report:

Public Health started delivering sexual health services again last summer as fewer resources were diverted to COVID-19. This spring, they hope to provide service again to all symptoms clients at all 3 offices plus access to family planning and pregnancy counselling, which is new.

Member Anderson asks about the difference between infectious and non-infectious syphilis. Mercer says it's about timing, if you have a sore, you're infectious and then it goes dormant. When it emerges again years later you can have bad results w/o treatment.

Report received unanimously by the board.

Next, Long-Term Care Home/Retirement Home COVID-19 and Influenza Vaccination Rates 2022. This report used to be developed for flu shots pre-COVID. Public Health helps congregate care settings manage vaccine distribution.

Kyley Alderson, Manager of Infection Control, notes that LTCs and retirement homes are susceptible to worst outcomes of both COVID and flu, so vaccine update is encouraged for residents and staff.

Percentage of Long-Term Care and Retirement Home residents with influenza and COVID-19 fall booster vaccine as of December 15, 2022

Percentage of employees with influenza vaccine by facility type as of December 15, 2022.

Percentage of Long-Term Care and Retirement Homes that began to provide influenza and COVID-19 fall booster by month.

Alderson notes that they saw more flu than COVID-19 last fall, and she also notes that on average there was more vaccine uptake by residents versus staff. PH is looking at ways of encouraging employee vax rates and how to keep that general uptake in LTC and RH high.

Goller asks if there's no requirement to vaccination. Alderson notes that there was a COVID vaccine requirement, but that's no longer in place, vaccine policy also generally depends on the facility.

Vaccine rates by retirement homes and long-term care homes:

Alderson also notes that there could be holes in the reporting. Someone gets their vaccines off duty and then never reports it.

Motion to receive the report for information passed unanimously.

Next, Oral Health (Oral Screening and Healthy Smiles Ontario). April is #oralhealth month if you didn't know.

Janet Kwansah, Manager of Dental Community Health talks about the challenges of getting proper care in the community. 70% of low income people in the region who need dental care can't get it b/c of cost. PH is doing their best, but it's hard to find help from area dentists

Oral Screenings at school have found a 43% ⬆️ in the # of students in the region who have an urgent need to get dental care so far compared to the last year that the program was run in 2018/2019. There are still 40 schools left to screen before summer vacation this June.

Mercer adds that some young people are getting to the point where they need several hours of care if its done in the dentist's chair, but these things are easily done in an OR. PH is encouraging hospitals to not cut OR time for young dental patients.

Cllr Busuttil asks if PH is involved in any of the free clinics some dentist offices run? Isley says that's set up by the dental offices themselves, and those clinics are usually aimed at people over 18.

Goller asks if Wellington County offers a top-up for these programs, but is there a case for Guelph and Dufferin to do the same? Mercer says it's a conversation PH is willing to have if the offer is made. But the need is huge and they're doing the best they can with 💵available.

Caton asks about finding more providers, can we lobby to raise the fees as encouragement? Mercer says there will be producing a report to provide a complete overview of the costs and that will come forward this fall.

Motion to receive the report as information passes unanimously.

Finally, the Opioid Surveillance Update. Michael Whyte, Health Promotion Specialist of Health Analytics, will present.

The information from this report about opioid related fatalities is from the first 9 months of 2022, and Whyte says they should be take as preliminary.

These are the mortality rates for the province and for WDG:

What other non-opioids are contributing to deaths?

No report locally of any opioid-related deaths being tied to xylazine, the so-called "zombie drug" that makes it impossible to revive an overdose with naloxone. You may recall that there was a public health alert a few weeks about about xylazine being detected in the area.

Monitoring is, of course, one aspect of the drug prevention strategy:

Goller asks to see more information about the impact on paramedics and emergency services. There's not much they can do about provincial health policy, but it would help with advocacy to know about those impacts to get further support on prevention.

Motion to receive the report as information passed unanimously.

The only committee report is for Human Resources, and those matters all need to be handled in closed session.

Chair Bridge says that there will likely be no motions or information coming out of those closed session items, so the meeting is effectively...

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