Health & Medicine: 1)Health Unit warns of dangerous drug poisonings linked to animal tranquilizers 2)Children’s hospitals seeing more flu cases as earlier season takes a toll; 3)Health Canada recalls glucose monitors that may give patients incorrect readings; 4)New HIV prevention guidelines say doctors should not be ‘gatekeeping’ PrEP; 5) San Francisco sues top food manufacturers over Ultraprocessed foods; 6)Ozempic and other GLP-1s about to take a bite out of the fast-food business

1)Health Unit warns of dangerous drug poisonings linked to animal tranquilizers

Courtesy Barrie 360.com and News Release

By Newsroom, December 5, 2025

The Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit is warning residents about reports of severe drug poisonings in the community linked to substances believed to contain animal tranquillizers.

These incidents have involved symptoms such as seizures and prolonged confusion, making them harder to treat than typical opioid overdoses.

“Please call 911 when responding to a drug poisoning because additional medical support might be needed,” the health unit advised.

Although details about the substance are limited, officials believe the unusual symptoms may be caused by tranquillizers such as xylazine or medetomidine being present in the drug supply.

The health unit is urging people to know the signs of a drug poisoning, which include:

What can you do?

The health unit emphasizes that these steps can save lives, especially as the local drug supply becomes increasingly unpredictable.

For more information and resources, visit the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit website.

2)Children’s hospitals seeing more flu cases as earlier season takes a toll

Source Canadian Press

By Nicole Ireland, Dec. 4, 2025

Hospitals are seeing more children sick with flu after the virus began circulating earlier than usual this year.

The Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario said it saw eight times more kids testing positive for influenza last month than it did in November last year.

A spokesperson for CHEO said the difference is stark — 17 confirmed cases last November compared to 145 cases this November.

CHEO’s flu hospitalizations have doubled, with 12 children admitted last month compared to six the previous November.

Montreal Children’s Hospital pediatric infectious disease specialist Dr. Jesse Papenburg said a surveillance network covering 15 children’s hospitals across the country shows a rise in emergency department visits for the flu.

Doctors are urging people to get their flu shot now, noting it takes about two weeks for protection to kick in.

Papenburg said flu season usually hits school-age children first because they are more exposed to the virus through interactions with their classmates and friends.

“Thankfully, school-age children are at lower risk of having severe complications of their influenza infection,” he said.

“But certainly children with underlying medical conditions and those that are very young, especially under two years of age, are at increased risk of hospitalization.”

Seniors, especially those 75 years and older, are also vulnerable to more severe illness from flu and doctors expect to see more emergency department visits and hospitalizations in that age group, Papenburg said.

Dr. Allison McGeer, an infectious disease specialist at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, said the virus may be causing more serious infections right now because people didn’t have a chance to get their flu shot before the virus started spreading more widely in mid-November.

In Ontario, people who are not seniors or in other high-risk groups, including children, weren’t able to get the shot until late October.

The flu virus has both influenza A and influenza B strains. Influenza A typically kicks off the flu season, with influenza B starting to spread more later in the winter.

Two strains of influenza A — H3N2 and H1N1 — are circulating, but H3N2 appears to be the dominant strain this year, McGeer said.

“If you’re willing to get a vaccine in one year, this is the year to get it,” she said.

H3N2 tends to make older people sicker because they’ve built up more immunity to H1N1 over the course of their lifetimes, she said.

H3N2 has mutated over the last several months, Papenburg said, meaning it may not offer as much protection against that strain as infectious disease specialists had hoped.

“What we’ve seen is that the virus evolved a little bit from the time that the choices were made for the vaccine strains. And this H3N2 strain that is circulating is not a perfect match with what is in the vaccine,” he said.

But it’s still worth getting the shot, doctors say, because some protection is better than none to prevent severe illness and hospitalizations.

Preliminary vaccine effectiveness data from the U.K. suggests that in the early days of their flu season this year, the shot provided 30 to 40 per cent effectiveness against H3N2 for seniors and 60 to 70 per cent protection against the strain for kids, Papenburg said.

This year’s vaccine may also offer higher protection against the H1N1 and influenza B strains circulating, he said.

The Public Health Agency of Canada is expected to publish its latest flu surveillance data on Friday and case numbers are expected to continue to climb through December.

3)Health Canada recalls glucose monitors that may give patients incorrect readings

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Hannah Alberga, Dec. 5, 2025.

Health Canada recalls glucose monitors that may give patients incorrect readings

Health Canada is asking diabetes patients to check if their glucose monitor is subject to an international recall that has serious health risks.

The federal agency is recalling some FreeStyle Libre 3 Plus sensors that may provide incorrect glucose readings.

The recall warns incorrect readingsmay lead people to falsely believe their glucose levels are low and as a result consume too many carbohydrates, or skip or delay their insulin doses.

The sensors are devices that measure glucose levels in fluid just beneath the skin,and send the information wirelessly to a device or phone.

Abbott Diabetes Care, which makes the devices, said in a news release last month that the affected products are potentially linked to seven deaths and more than 700 injuries worldwide.

An Abbott spokesperson told The Canadian Press that the company would not share which countries the reported injuries and deaths occurred in.

Health Canada said it would provide a response, but was not able to answer questions by deadline.

Another model —the FreeStyle Libre 3 — has been recalled in other countries including the U.S., but Abbott said it is not recalled in Canada.

The company said it has identified and resolved the production line issue.

Health Canada said people should stop using affected sensors, get rid of them and request a replacement.

The model and serial numbers of the affected products can be found on Health Canada’s recall website: https://recalls-rappels.canada.ca/en/alert-recall/freestyle-librer-3-plus-sensor-kit

– With files from the Associated Press

Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.

4)New HIV prevention guidelines say doctors should not be ‘gatekeeping’ PrEP

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Hannah Alberga, December 1, 2025

A coalition of doctors across Canada is releasing a new guideline for prescribing medications that can prevent HIV infection, with a strong focus on increasing the promotion and awareness of the expanding class of drugs.

The clinical guideline published Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal provides 31 recommendations and 10 good practices for prescribing antiretroviral medication before and after a potential HIV exposure to prevent infection.

Lead author Dr. Darrell Tan said 19 physicians volunteered their time over the last three years to review the latest research and write the new guidelines, as the range of available pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and postexposure prophylaxis (PEP) options has expanded since the last guidance was released in 2017.

The recommendations are aimed at reducing the rise of HIV infections in Canada over the last several years, in pursuit of the country’s goal to eliminate the sexually transmitted infection as a public health threat by 2030.

“We’re not at all on track to reach that ambitious target,” said Tan, a physician-scientist at St. Michael’s Hospital.

The Public Health Agency of Canada said HIV diagnosis rates steadily increased from 2021 to 2023, the most recent data available.

There was a 35 per cent increase in new HIV cases from 2022 to 2023, with 2,434 diagnoses. There were 1,800 first-time diagnoses in 2022 and more than 1,450 in 2021.

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research said 2024 data will be released Monday.

Tan said that rise is rooted in “deep historical and structural inequities” that have positioned specific populations at a disadvantage when it comes to accessing PrEP and PEP.

More than one-third of new infections are in women, 38 per cent are in gay, bisexual, and other men having sex with men, and 25 per cent are in people who inject drugs.

Infections have heavily affected some Indigenous communities, with more cases in Saskatchewan and Manitoba than the national average.

Tan said it’s “disappointing” that national, provincial, regional and territorial authorities have not promoted more public health messaging on PrEP and PEP to counteract the stigma that can surround these medications.

“Almost everyone in Canada knows unequivocally that public health authorities think that influenza vaccination is something that they would support,” Tan said.

“It’s a failure of public health and authorities to push the message out in a positive way.”

The Public Health Agency of Canada says it provides national leadership for the prevention and control of sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections through its guide on the subject for health professionals.

In it, the federal agency has referred to HIV PrEP guidelines developed by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research’s Canadian HIV Trials Network.

The guideline

The new guideline states that a health provider should prescribe PrEP to someone who is seeking it, even if they don’t disclose their HIV risk factors, rather than doctors “gatekeeping” access.

“There are many reasons people may not disclose HIV risk behaviours to health care providers, including shame, medical mistrust, and structural barriers linked to homophobia, transphobia, racism, colonial practices, HIV stigma, and other forms of discrimination,” the guideline states.

Dr. Ameeta Singh, a member of the guideline committee, said this is aimed at lowering the barrier to accessing PrEP.

Doctors across specialties, such as primary care and reproductive health, should also actively offer the medication if they identify risk, such as condomless sex, previous bacterial sexually transmitted infection, a higher number of partners and injection drug-use.

The expanding range of available PrEP choices is also addressed, and the guideline outlines appropriate scenarios in which they should be offered. In addition to daily and “on demand” pills, Health Canada approved a long-acting injectable medication in 2024.

This long-acting option is taken every two months, which Singh said is a particularly beneficial option for people who inject drugs and have unstable housing, as it would be challenging to take a daily pill.

“This is where injectable agents have huge potential,” said Singh, a clinical professor in the division of infectious diseases at the University of Alberta.

She said the next step is for policy makers to make implementing this guidance a priority.

Action

Dr. Sean Rourke, a scientist with the MAP Center for Urban Health Solutions at St. Michael’s Hospital, said he would have liked the guideline to more heavily address how to reach communities with the highest HIV rates — particularly Indigenous people in the Prairies.

Indigenous Peoples represented 19.6 per cent of new HIV diagnoses in 2023 (where race/ethnicity was reported), and only five per cent of the population, according to Communities, Alliances and Networks, which addresses HIV issues within an Indigenous context.

“There’s nothing in the paper about how you reach these people,” he said.

Rourke and a team of HIV advocates have been partnering with Indigenous leaders to reach people in Canada’s hardest hit communities. An HIV testing program they launched in March for underserved and remote communities in the Prairies has tested more than 15,000 people.

“Those that are the most vulnerable. It’s impacting them, three or four times more than it would have otherwise because other things have happened and the safety net is not there,” he said.

Rourke said solutions like this testing program already exist to address well-established health inequities.

However, he said, “It doesn’t happen on its own. And that’s the problem.”

Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.

5) San Francisco sues top food manufacturers over ultraprocessed foods

Courtesy Barrie360.com and The Associated Press

By Jaimie Ding, December 3, 2025

The city of San Francisco filed a lawsuit against some of the top food manufacturers arguing ultraprocessed food from the likes of Coca-Cola and Nestle is responsible for a public health crisis.

City Attorney David Chiu named 10 companies in the lawsuit, including the makers of such popular foods as Oreo cookies, Sour Patch Kids, Kit Kat, Cheerios and Lunchables. The lawsuit argues that ultraprocessed foods are linked to diseases such as Type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease and cancer.

“They took food and made it unrecognizable and harmful to the human body,” Chiu said in a news release. “These companies engineered a public health crisis, they profited handsomely, and now they need to take responsibility for the harm they have caused.”

Ultraprocessed foods include candy, chips, processed meats, sodas, energy drinks, breakfast cereals and other foods that are designed to “stimulate cravings and encourage overconsumption,” Chiu’s office said in the release. Such foods are “formulations of often chemically manipulated cheap ingredients with little if any whole food added,” Chiu wrote in the lawsuit.

The other companies named in the lawsuit are PepsiCo; Kraft Heinz Company; Post Holdings; Mondelez International; General Mills; Kellogg; Mars Incorporated; and ConAgra Brands.

None of the companies named in the suit immediately responded to emailed requests for comment.

U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been vocal about the negative impact of ultraprocessed foods and their links to chronic disease and has targeted them in his Make America Healthy Again campaign. Kennedy has pushed to ban such foods from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for low-income families.

An August report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that most Americans get more than half their calories from ultraprocessed foods.

In October, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a first-in-the-nation law to phase out certain ultraprocessed foods from school meals over the next decade.

San Francisco’s lawsuit cites several scientific studies on the negative impact of ultraprocessed foods on human health.

“Mounting research now links these products to serious diseases—including Type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, heart disease, colorectal cancer, and even depression at younger ages,” University of California, San Francisco, professor Kim Newell-Green said in the news release.

The lawsuit argues that by producing and promoting ultraprocessed foods, the companies violate California’s Unfair Competition Law and public nuisance statute. It seeks a court order preventing the companies from “deceptive marketing” and requiring them to take actions such as consumer education on the health risks of ultraprocessed foods and limiting advertising and marketing of ultraprocessed foods to children.

It also asks for financial penalties to help local governments with health care costs caused by the consumption of ultraprocessed foods.

6)Ozempic and other GLP-1s about to take a bite out of the fast-food business: experts

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Tara Deschamps, November 30, 2025

If you visit a fast-food chain in the next few years, expect the menu to look a little less gluttonous.

In between the usual deep-fried options, industry observers anticipate more offerings that come in smaller portions, pack nutrients like protein or fibre and check enough boxes to be considered healthy.

The changes aren’t just a reflection of our growing predilection for snacking or our ongoing quest to trim down our tabs — and waists. They’re also because more people have shrinking appetites triggered by injectable drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro.

These glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists, or GLP-1s, were predominantly used to treat diabetes until the masses realized they slow down emptying of the stomach, causing people to feel full longer than without the drug. Ipsos suggests 1.4 million Canadians are on GLP-1s and that number will triple by 2030 as many flock to a pill form Eli Lilly promised soon.

The uptake could spell trouble for fast-food joints already contending with more price- and health-conscious customers not on the drugs.

“In terms of absolute dollars, yes, restaurants are going to feel it,” said Leigh O’Donnell, head of shopper and category insights at research firm Kantar.

Since they began taking GLP-1s, 42 per cent of the 500 Canadians her company surveyed in December 2024 said they began making healthier choices. Thirty-four per cent said the drugs had them eating less often and 30 per cent said they were gravitating toward smaller quantities.

The results fly in the face of an industry that has supercharged its profits by conditioning diners to believe bigger is better. For years, people barely thought twice about “supersizing” their fries for less than a dollar or opting for the burger with an extra patty.

Sure, followers of the latest diet fads winced at the calories and when prices rose, many hated the cost, but for others, one whiff of anything bathed in fryer oil or pumped with sugar was all it took to convince them to open their wallets. Even less indulgent customers could be counted on to roll through a drive-thru for coffee on the way to work or a meal after hockey practice.

GLP-1s could put those habits in jeopardy.

“Now mom’s not hungry, so everybody else has got to wait until they get home (to eat),” O’Donnell said.

And it’s not just hunger GLP-1s are trouncing. They’re also getting people to rethink how they eat.

Kantar’s research shows 31 per cent of Canadians surveyed said their taste in food had changed since being on the drug. In the U.S., notable numbers of GLP-1 patients are skipping processed food or opting for items lower in sugar or more laden with fruit and vegetables.

“All of a sudden, they become more mindful, so instead of going out for burgers and fries once a week, they may replace that with something else, maybe a grilled chicken sandwich instead of a burger, and maybe a salad instead of fries on the side,” said Jordan LeBel, a food marketing professor at Concordia University.

That’s the best-case scenario for restaurants, but not everyone will switch one big-ticket item for another. Some might say no to upsizing their order, making it a combo or adding an extra treat to it. Others will forgo stopping at the fast-food joint altogether.

The result could be a drop in spending at restaurant chains that mirrors a decrease already materializing south of the border, where GLP-1s have caught on even faster.

A December 2024 paper from the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business reported an eight per cent decline in spending at fast-food chains, coffee shops and limited-service restaurants like takeout counters during the first year of someone taking a GLP-1.

“It doesn’t sound like a big number, but that’s hundreds of millions of dollars,” LeBel said of the drop in revenue it could equate to.

At McDonald’s alone, equity analyst firm Redburn Atlantic has predicted there could be up to 28 million fewer customer visits because of GLP-1s, resulting in a revenue loss of US$482 million per year (about $674.2 million Cdn).

But it’s Shake Shack that William Blair analysts said in February 2024 that they “worry the most about.” The U.S. chain that entered the Canadian market last year is vulnerable because of its “indulgent menu with a focus on burgers (one of the categories for which consumption declined the most post-GLP-1) and a lack of history of successfully pivoting to healthier offerings.”

Even though the firm’s research shows they are among the chains that have lost the most visits from GLP-1 users, Outback Steakhouse, Chipotle and the Cheesecake Factory will likely fare better because they have more room to pivot to different menu items and portion sizes, the analysts concluded.

Some businesses have begun making that shift already. U.S. restaurant chain Cuba Libre has a GLP-1 menu items backed by nutritionists and Tucci, an Italian joint in New York, lets people order single meatballs from what the owner jokes is an “Ozempic menu.”

Though it’s hard to weed out whether GLP-1s or other eating habits were the trigger, sit-down restaurants in Canada are experimenting more with vegetables, fast-food giants are devoting a growing portion of their menus to snacks, and protein lattes — which pack a nutrient GLP-1 users require — are available at café chains like Starbucks and Tim Hortons.

Tims president Axel Schwan told The Canadian Press in late October that his company was aware of GLP-1s but said it wasn’t impacting the business.

While she didn’t name names, O’Donnell said most companies have their “head in the sand,” when it comes to GLP-1s, because they’re too stressed about other health trends, labour problems and rising beef costs.

“It’s just another whack,” she said.

Still, she maintains “all hope is not lost” for them because most of the population isn’t on GLP-1s and not everyone who tries them will stick with them.

Plus, even those that decide to take it for the long-term will want a treat every so often.

“People are not behaving monastically. They’re not like, ‘I will only eat cardboard and water for the rest of my life,'” she said.

“The reality of people’s crazy lives is they go to a quick-serve restaurant and even if you have a small fry or a Tims with extra cream in it, maybe that’s not something you do every day … but they’re indulging a little bit.”