The Canada report

By Compiled from Times wires

© St. Petersburg Times, published August 11, 2000

Officials prepare for mosquito-borne virus

MONTREAL -- Fearing the arrival of the mosquito-borne West Nile disease, provincial health officials say they are ready to go as far as aerial spraying of insecticides should the deadly virus be transmitted to Quebec.

Such a move would be a last resort, said Dr. Monique Fradet, a public health official for the provincial Health Department.

"We wouldn't do it for the fun of it. We'd do it if there was a real threat," she said, meaning that several birds would have to be found to be infected or a person exposed in Quebec. So far, no cases have been detected in Canada.

The West Nile virus first appeared on this continent last year, in the northeastern United States. The virus causes encephalitis, a swelling of brain tissue that can cause seizures, brain damage or coma.

Killing mosquitoes via aerial spraying of insecticide is a controversial method much criticized in the United States, where environmental activists argue that the effects of spraying are not known and could be too drastic and hazardous a reaction to a disease that has killed only seven people. The virus recently was found in a dead bird in upper New York state.

As a warning system, Health Canada has stationed 34 flocks of chickens along the border eastward from Saskatchewan. Blood is drawn from the chickens and tested to see if they have been bitten by virus-carrying mosquitoes.

Report points to possible shortage of doctors

TORONTO -- The average age of Canadian doctors is rising, causing concern about a possible shortage in the future as older physicians retire.

According to a report published Wednesday by the Canadian Institute for Health Information, 40 percent of doctors practicing in Canada are older than 50, while 28.1 percent are younger than 40.

The average age of doctors last year was 47.2 years old, up from 46.3 in 1995, the study said.

"Aging in itself is . . . not the issue," said Dr. Mo Watanabe, a professor emeritus at the University of Calgary's medical school.

The problem is that "the distribution of physicians by age group is not uniform. . . . If a large number of people start to retire at the age of 65 or 70 or 75, then you're left with an insufficient number of younger physicians," he said.

The report showed growth in the number of doctors kept pace with the overall population from 1995 to 1999. However, Watanabe said older doctors -- particularly in rural communities -- are working past retirement age because of a lack of younger doctors to take their places.

- Information from the Toronto Globe and Mail and Associated Press was used in this report.

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