CANADA HEALTH INFOWAY

April 12, 2010

VIDEO GALLERY PHOTO GALLERIES COMMENT ON A STORY CANADA VOTESNew ACROSS CANADA WORLD WATCH LATEST BREAKING NEWS WEIRD NEWS CRIME POLITICS FEATURES MEDIA NEWS SCIENCE GREEN NEWS GOOD NEWS TECHNOLOGY ROYAL WEDDINGNew Sun Papers Columnists Lotteries Weather RSS Feed Has anyone in your family lived over 100 years? Yes No I'm over 100 years old Results | Story		$1 million pension for 6 years in government job By Andrew McIntosh, QMI Agency Do you think taxpayers' money is misspent? MONTREAL – The head of a non-profit agency overseeing Canada’ shift to electronic medical records has racked up more than a $1 million taxpayer-funded retirement pension - after a mere six years on the job, a QMI investigation shows. Richard C. Alvarez has been chief executive of Canada Health Infoway Inc. (Inforoute Santé du Canada) since only 2004. Yet he’s already snared a fully funded, golden retirement that would be the envy of ordinary public servants, never mind ordinary taxpayers struggling to get timely health care. Details of Alvarez’s gold-plated pension are buried in six years worth of Infoway financial reports reviewed by QMI Agency. News of his deluxe package comes amid rumours that the Harper government may curtail pension plans of ordinary federal public servants so they’ll pay more of the rising cost of their retirements. Options include boosting individual workers’ contributions and or restricting early retirements. Infoway was created by the Liberal government in 2001. It now has about 200 employees in Montreal and Toronto. The non-profit has so far received $1.6 billion to spend on electronic health records projects across Canada, working with the provinces, territories and technology companies. It was to get another $500 million this year, but the minority Conservative government put that on ice in its recent budget. Infoway works with the provinces and territories to develop and finance electronic health records projects that aim to create a safer, more cost-effective health-care system. Alvarez’ pension plan was created specially for him when he joined the non-profit organization in 2004. He is a former Alberta and federal public servant. There was no mention of such a plan existing for his Infoway predecessor, Linda Lizotte-Macpherson. "It’s unreal!’’ said Catherine Swift, president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business when told of the pension. "We have a problem with the proliferation of these quasi-government, but independent, arm’s-length corporations created so they can avoid the already loosey -goosy rules of government,’’ Swift said. Infoway spokesman Dan Strasbourg defended Alvarez’ hefty pension, saying the plan was approved by its board of directors, which includes senior provincial health bureaucrats. That’s the problem, Swift says. "A lot of the people making the decisions benefit from the decisions,’’ she added, noting that pensions for many senior bureaucrats are also out of control and an overly generous package for one, will push others higher. Strasbourg said the Alvarez package "is comparable to CEOs of major hospitals and government agencies.’’ Strasbourg declined to answer when told major hospitals in Montreal and Toronto, and major government agencies, each have thousands of employees to oversee, not 200 workers like at Canada Health Infoway. Strasbourg also declined to discuss why Infoway didn’t offer Alvarez much less expensive RRSP contributions for retirement. That’s what Infoway offers its other staffers, its website says. Strasbourg said Alvarez has moved Canada’s electronic health records efforts "from a small group of pilot projects to a national collaboration involving every province and territory, which has resulted in nearly 300 initiatives across Canada.’’ He cited a report by Auditor General Sheila Fraser – tabled in Parliament in November – saying that Infoway’s compensation policies reflected "prudence and probity’’ and had considered comparable benchmarks. None of them were publicly disclosed. Strasbourg claimed that the taxman will eventually take a large bite out of Alvarez’ retirement windfall. "The pension fund will be subject to approximately 50% in taxes upon settlement,’’ Strabourg said, suggesting that all Alvarez will eventually get is a cool $40,000-a-year pension annuity. Infoway is not covered by federal Access to Information legislation and Strasbourg refused to disclose details of Alvarez compensation package. eHealth Ontario – a provincial electronic medical records sister to Infoway - disclosed the employment agreement of its former CEO, Sarah Kramer, in response to a Freedom of Information request last year. Details of Kramer’s $517 428 pay package – including a $380,000 base salary – are available on the Internet for all to see.

Toronto Physician-Proctologist Murray FISHER:: YORK UNIV DONATION

Proctologist Murray (Woody) FISHER MD(Tor.58) FRCPC(65) donated the Costa Rica forest of LAS NUBES to York University as part of the Fisher Fund for Neotropical conservation.

Dr.Fisher now practices at the BALMORAL MEDICAL ARTS at 1366 Yonge st. (south of St.Clair) after all the doctors at the historic 1926, MEDICAL ARTS BUILDING at Bloor and St.George  were evicted in 2007 by Toronto University who changed the building to the JACKMAN HUMANIST INSTITUTE after a donation by (Past Ont. Lt.Gov.Gen.) Hon. Henry JACKMAN O.C, O.Ont. BA( Tor.53), LLB( LSE 56), Chairman of National Trust.

FRANCE; HEPATITIS E.

ProMED-mail to promed-ahead-e.
show details 21:42 (37 minutes ago)

HEPATITIS E - FRANCE: (SOUTHEAST), AUTOCHTHONOUS AND FOOD-BORNE
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A ProMED-mail post
<http://www.promedmail.org/>
ProMED-mail is a program of the
International Society for Infectious Diseases
<http://www.isid.org/>
Date: Tue 12 Apr 2011
From: Philippe Colson [edited]
<philippe.colson@univmed.fr>

Autochthonous hepatitis E -- Marseille, southeastern France
------------------------------------------------------------
We report on 11 hepatitis E virus (HEV) infections diagnosed from
January through March 2011 by PCR and serology in our microbiology lab
at University hospitals of Marseille, southeastern France. The 11
cases were 10 men and a woman. Their age was 57 plus or minus 11
years. One patient died 2 months after the onset of hepatitis. None of
the cases traveled abroad during the three months before the disease
onset. Consumption of pig liver sausage was documented in 6 of 9
patients that could be interviewed. Noteworthy, anti-HEV IgM could be
detected in the serum from the wife of 2 of the cases that ate
uncooked pig liver sausage. Both women ate the same sausage as their
husbands. In one of the women, ALT level was 165 UI/l; no clinical
symptom was noted.
Eight of these 11 hepatitis E cases occurred from 24 Feb 2011. From
this date, the number of hepatitis E cases diagnosed in our lab
significantly increased. This was detected by EPIMIC, a home-made
alert and surveillance epidemiologic tool that analyses in real-time
the number of clinical samples and positive diagnosis in our
microbiology lab. The alert threshold is the mean value of historical
data plus 2 standard deviations (SD). Starting from 24 Feb 2011, the
number of serum samples tested and of those testing positive for
anti-HEV IgM were above the threshold. Indeed, 54 sera were tested
(mean value, 22; 2 SD, 30), and at least 5 of them tested positive for
anti-HEV IgM (Adaltis assay) (mean value, 1; 2 SD, 3). Concurrently,
the number of PCR-documented hepatitis E was between 1 and 3 per week,
whereas the mean value is 0.4 based on historical data.
In developed industrialized countries, it was thought until recently
that hepatitis E was related to travel in tropical or sub-tropical
countries, where HEV infection is hyper-endemic. Nevertheless, it
turns out that most cases are autochthonous, occurring in patients who
have not traveled abroad over the last 2-9 weeks (incubation period of
the disease). In France, more than 200 indigenous cases are reported
each year. Most of them were diagnosed in the southern region, where
the prevalence of anti-HEV IgG in blood donors is higher than in the
North (8-16.6 percent versus 3.4 percent).
It has been clearly shown in developed industrialized countries that
pigs (and boars) are reservoirs of the virus. Acute hepatitis E has
been diagnosed in our lab in persons who consumed uncooked pig liver
sausages, which are widely eaten in southeastern France. These
sausages are good candidates for the transmission of hepatitis E
because they are made with pig liver (the site of viral
multiplication), are not cooked during the manufacturing process, and
are often eaten uncooked. We reported in 2009 on 8 hepatitis E among
patients who ate pig liver sausage [see: ProMED-mail post archived as:
Hepatitis E - France: (Marseille) pig liver sausage 20090917.3267]. A
case-control study conducted in 3 different families revealed that
acute or recent hepatitis E were significantly associated with
consumption of uncooked pig liver sausage. In addition, genetic links
were found between viral sequences recovered from sausages and those
recovered from patients.
Subsequently to the notification of these cases, French health
authorities compelled producers of pig liver sausages to indicate on
the label of the products that they need to be cooked thoroughly.
Indeed, it was shown that cooking pieces of liver containing HEV
limits their infectivity.
The mortality of symptomatic cases of hepatitis E is 1 to 4 percent;
fatal outcome occurs mostly among people who already have chronic
liver disease. Moreover, it appears that the infection can progress
towards chronic hepatitis among severely immunocompromized persons, as
observed in kidney or liver transplant recipients and in persons
infected with HIV. The proportion of asymptomatic HEV infections
remains unknown to date.
--
Philippe Colson PharmD PhD
Pôle des Maladies Infectieuses et Tropicales Clinique et
Biologique,
Federation de Bacteriologie-Hygiene-Virologie,
Centre Hospitalo-Universitaire Timone, AP-HM,
URMITE CNRS UMR 6236 IRD 198
Facultes de Medecine et de Pharmacie
Universite de la Mediterranee
<philippe.colson@ap-hm.fr>
and
Rene Gerolami MD PhD
Service d'Hepato-Gastro-Enterologie
Centre Hospitalo-Universitaire Conception
147 boulevard Baille, 13385 Marseille CEDEX 05, France
<rene.gerolami@ap-hm.fr>
[ProMED-mail thanks Drs Philippe Colson and Rene Gerolami for sharing
with us and our readers this account of their current investigations
of hepatitis E virus infection in southeastern France.
To put the clinical investigation of of Drs Colson and Gerolami in
context, the following are some extracts from the WHO Fact sheet
(<http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs280/en/index.html>):
"Hepatitis E was not recognized as a distinct human disease until
1980. Hepatitis E is caused by infection with hepatitis E virus (HEV),
a non-enveloped, positive-sense, single-stranded RNA virus. HEV is
transmitted via the faecal-oral route.
"Hepatitis E has been considered a waterborne disease, and
contaminated water or food supplies have been implicated in major
outbreaks. Consumption of faecally contaminated drinking water has
given rise to epidemics, and the ingestion of raw or uncooked
shellfish has been the source of sporadic cases in endemic areas.
There is a possibility of zoonotic spread of the virus, since several
non-human primates, pigs, cows, sheep, goats and rodents are
susceptible to infection. The risk factors for HEV infection are
related poor sanitation in large areas of the world, and HEV shedding
in faeces. Person-to-person transmission is uncommon. There has been
no evidence for sexual transmission or for transmission by
transfusion. The highest rates of infection occur in regions where low
standards of sanitation promote the transmission of the virus.
Epidemics of hepatitis E have been reported in Central and South-East
Asia, North and West Africa, and in Mexico, especially where faecal
contamination of drinking water is common. However, sporadic cases of
hepatitis E have also been reported elsewhere and serological surveys
suggest a global distribution of strains of hepatitis E of low
pathogenicity. In general, hepatitis E is a self-limiting viral
infection followed by recovery. Prolonged viraemia or faecal shedding
are unusual and chronic infection does not occur.
"The incubation period following exposure to HEV ranges from 3 to 8
weeks, with a mean of 40 days. The period of communicability is
unknown. There are no chronic infections reported.
"Hepatitis E virus causes acute sporadic and epidemic viral
hepatitis. Symptomatic HEV infection is most common in young adults
aged 15-40 years. Although HEV infection is frequent in children, it
is mostly asymptomatic or causes a very mild illness without jaundice
(anicteric) that goes undiagnosed.
"Typical signs and symptoms of hepatitis include jaundice (yellow
discoloration of the skin and sclera of the eyes, dark urine and pale
stools), anorexia (loss of appetite), an enlarged, tender liver
(hepatomegaly), abdominal pain and tenderness, nausea and vomiting,
and fever, although the disease may range in severity from subclinical
to fulminant.
"Since cases of hepatitis E are not clinically distinguishable from
other types of acute viral hepatitis, diagnosis is made by blood tests
which detect elevated antibody levels of specific antibodies to
hepatitis E in the body or by or by reverse transcriptase polymerase
chain reaction (RT-PCR). Unfortunately, such tests are not widely
available.
"Hepatitis E should be suspected in outbreaks of waterborne hepatitis
occurring in developing countries, especially if the disease is more
severe in pregnant women, or if hepatitis A has been excluded. If
laboratory tests are not available, epidemiologic evidence can help in
establishing a diagnosis. (As is demonstrated by Drs Colson and
Gerolami above).
"As no specific therapy is capable of altering the course of acute
hepatitis E infection, prevention is the most effective approach
against the disease. Hospitalization is required for fulminant
hepatitis and should be considered for infected pregnant women."

TORONTO: VENEREAL DISEASE THREAT

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Private medicine BEST DOCTORS Inc. approved by Canadian Medical association.

CANADIAN HEALTH is published quarterly by the Canadian Medical Association.
The sub. is about $14/year depending on the Province. Provided free to CMA members for office use.

The inside cover has a full page ad for BOSTON based BEST DOCTORS Inc. Individual basic membership is $125/year.

Ontario College Physicians Surgeons PEER ASSESSMENT DEFENCE

CPSO PEER ASSESSMENT DEFENCE

CPSO PEER ASSESSORS fill up a TWELVE PAGE check list which can lead to costly penalties. Learn how to defend youself . Experienced doctors who have been through the misery of a Peer Assessment will visit your office for a whole day for $1,000. and travel expenses. They will also give you names of Lawyers who are expert in Medico-Legal matters.

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FREE TIP: All MDs over 70y in Ontario are Assessed. Best to give up Clinical medicine after 70 but keep your licence to be able to be elected to OMA jobs. Copy past OMA`Sec-Gen.(1952-1973)  Glenn SAWYER and study LAW (at 65y) or take an MBA.

416 473 4878

INDIA: ADULTERATED BUCKWHEAT

ProMED-mail to promed
show details 8 Apr (3 days ago)

FOODBORNE ILLNESS - INDIA: (DELHI) ADULTERATED FOOD
***************************************************
A ProMED-mail post
<http://www.promedmail.org/>
ProMED-mail is a program of the
International Society for Infectious Diseases
<http://www.isid.org/>
Date: Thu 7 Apr 2011
Source: The Times of India, Times News Network (TNN) [edited]
<http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/City/Delhi/Adulterated-kuttu-kills-MCD-staffer-300-ill/articleshow/7892256.cms>

In the 1st death from consumption of adulterated kuttu (buckwheat), a
50-year-old MCD [Municipal Corporation of Delhi] employee succumbed to
food poisoning in an east Delhi hospital on Wednesday morning [6 Apr
2011], less than 24 hours after taking ill. More than 300 people were
being treated in hospitals across Delhi and some NCR [national capital
region] areas, while 17 people had been arrested for selling the
spurious food.
Kuttu, which is used as a grain though it's not a cereal, is widely
consumed by those fasting during the 9-day [Hindu festival of]
Navratras, which started on Monday [4 Apr 2011].
"We have arrested 11 people including the owner of Nandu Masala Mill,
which was the maiden supplier to many wholesale retailers and
shopkeepers in east and northeast Delhi. He possibly also supplied to
Ghaziabad shops. We have also arrested 8 shopkeepers who were selling
adulterated buckwheat," said deputy commissioner of police (northeast)
Sanjay Kumar Jain.
The 1st victim of the adulteration, was admitted in Lal Bahadur
Shastri Hospital around 1.30 pm on Tuesday [5 Apr 2011] after he
complained of dizziness and nausea. This victim later suffered a
paralytic attack in hospital. "Prima facie, it appears that his
condition was precipitated due to buckwheat consumption," said
hospital medical superintendent Veer Singh.