Nicole Ireland, The Canadian Press

A new study says nurses, midwives and doulas can treat depression and anxiety symptoms experienced during pregnancy and after delivery.

The clinical trial, published today in the journal Nature Medicine, suggests training non-mental health specialists in short-term behavioural therapy can make treatment available for people who don't have a psychologist or psychiatrist.

Lead author Dr. Daisy Singla from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health says depression and anxiety symptoms affect one in five women who are pregnant or postpartum in Canada and the U.S.

Flu cases are continuing to rise across the country, public health data show, with Quebec, B.C. and the territories particularly hard hit as vulnerable patients seek help at hospitals. 

The Public Health Agency of Canada's website says 24 per cent of cases tested positive for influenza during the week ending Feb. 8 — up from the already-high 21 per cent the week before.   

Federal Health Minister Mark Holland says provincial and territorial health plans will cover primary care provided by nurse practitioners, pharmacists and midwives. 

Holland says regulated health-care professionals who aren't doctors will be able to bill the government for medically necessary services that would otherwise be provided by a physician. 

The minister says the changes are part of a new interpretation of the Canada Health Act that takes effect on April 1, 2026. 

The Center for Addiction and Mental Health says responders have fielded more than 300,000 calls and texts since the launch of the national 988 suicide helpline a year ago. 

Dr. Allison Crawford, the chief medical officer for the helpline, says people having suicidal thoughts or other mental health distress can get help 24 hours a day, seven days a week no matter where they live in Canada. 

She expects the volume of calls and texts will go up as more people become aware of the service.  

A new report by the Canadian Institute for Health Information says 83 per cent of adults in this country have a regular primary-care provider, but that still leaves 5.4 million adults without one. 

It says seniors 65 years and older are more likely to have access to a family doctor or nurse practitioner than younger adults between 18 and 34. 

Access to primary care is highest in Ontario and lowest in Nunavut. 

Public health agencies are encouraging people who received a first dose of mpox vaccine over the last two years to make sure they get a second dose. 

Many people at risk for mpox exposure got vaccinated in Canada beginning in spring 2022, when a global outbreak of the virus was declared, Canada's chief public health officer said in a recent interview with The Canadian Press.

But a lot of them never got a second dose, which is recommended at least 28 days after the first shot.

The type of mpox spreading rapidly through several African countries could arrive in Canada, where that strain hasn't appeared before, Canadian experts say.  

The detection of clade I mpox in Sweden in someone who had travelled to an affected African country is a "harbinger" of broader spread, said Dr. Fahad Razak, an internal medicine specialist and epidemiologist at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto. 

The Public Health Agency of Sweden said Thursday it is the first case of clade I mpox to be diagnosed outside the African continent. 

The World Health Organization's declaration of mpox as a global public health emergency means Canada must do its part to help stem outbreaks of the virus in Africa, experts say. 

"Where there is a fire, we all put it out quickly and the whole village is safe. If you allow one house to burn in a village, sooner or later that fire is coming for you," said Dr. Madhukar Pai, Canada Research Chair in epidemiology and global health at McGill University in Montreal.

A national task force that provides guidance for primary health-care providers is not lowering the recommended breast cancer screening age to 40, despite urging from several cancer specialists, surgeons and radiologists. 

The Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care has been reviewing its current advice that women start routine breast cancer screening at age 50.

It holds firm on that position, and on previous advice against routine screening past age 74.

As wildfires rage in British Columbia, the family of a nine-year-old boy who died last summer is trying to protect people from poor air quality due to smoke this year.  

Amber Vigh says it's "scary" to know the wildfire season is once again in full swing and she is feeling "probably a little bit of PTSD." 

But she's hoping that Carter's Project, a partnership between the family and the BC Lung Foundation, will help make a difference.