Adam R Houston

Federal funding for tuberculosis fight in the North remains uncertain, Inuit leader says The program’s $16.2-million funding in 2023 will run out on March 31 next year

"The head of the national organization representing Inuit says he has had no firm commitment from federal officials to renew funding to support the elimination of #tuberculosis in #Canada’s North – despite the government promising to eradicate it by 2030."
www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/art...

And against the backdrop of donor countries slashing their aid contributions, including to the #GlobalFund...
Here's the 2025 #WorldAIDSDay report from @unaids.org:
www.unaids.org/en/resources...

IPV = injected, cannot cause polio
OPV = oral, small risk of causing polio

OPV only used in some very poor countries where wild polio is endemic for two main reasons: 1) it's easy to get to many people fast, 2) it actually blocks transmission, so can slow an epidemic.

Global shift to IP underway.

Canada's PR about #GlobalFund manages to be simultaneously self-aggrandizing and obfuscatory about cutting its funding.
"This pledge reflects Canada’s continued leadership in global health, while aligning with broader domestic priorities and recalibrating contributions to a pre-pandemic scale" 🧐

While no one was watching: Tenuous status of CDC prion unit, risk of CWD to people worry scientists

The way 2025 is going, we're going to end up with an outbreak of kuru like in that X-Files episode.
"While no one was watching: Tenuous status of CDC prion unit, risk of CWD to people worry scientists"
www.cidrap.umn.edu/chronic-wast...

YouTube video by BigSugarBand Big Sugar: Roads Ahead

Day 25: Ahead #LyricsPrompt #LyricsPrompt2025
Big Sugar - Roads Ahead
www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2R-...

Doctor and nurses are leaving Nunavik over water shortages that affect care PUVIRNITUQ - Doctors and nurses in Quebec's Nunavik region say constant water shortages are a factor that is pushing some colleagues to leave, in a region where retention of staff

Pretty grim headline on multiple levels: "Doctor and nurses are leaving Nunavik over water shortages that affect care" www.thecanadianpressnews.ca/national/doc...

YouTube video by Perry Henzell Jimmy Cliff Recording The Harder They Come In Studio Session

Oh man, Jimmy Cliff. 😞
The Harder They Come: Great movie, great song, greatest soundtrack. www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHAb...

Health minister dismisses key recommendation from expert report on pharmacare The report says the federal government should fully fund a list of essential medicines without cutting deals with the premiers.

Speaking of that expert committee report on Canadian #pharmacare...
""Health minister dismisses key recommendation from expert report on pharmacare"
www.thestar.com/politics/fed...

Polio outbreaks due to vaccine-derived viruses demand a re-definition of vaccine safety Vaccine safety is regarded as the absence of any serious adverse event following immunisation (sAEFI) in the vaccinated individual. The live oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV) causes an sAEFI—vaccine-assoc...

Interesting piece on the need to shift from the OPV to the IPV #polio vaccine.
"Polio outbreaks due to vaccine-derived viruses demand a re-definition of vaccine safety" www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Update from the Ethiopian Ministry of Health on the #Marburg outbreak.

Canada's cuts to The Global Fund will fuel reversal of progress on HIV, TB, and Malaria | Doctors Without Borders / Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF ... Canada's reduced pledge to The Global Fund reflects recent aid cuts, a shift from its previous leading role in fighting AIDS, TB, and malaria.

Read our full statement: www.doctorswithoutborders.ca/canadas-cuts...

YouTube video by Lannister Hot Action Cop - Fever for the Flava [ORIGINAL!]

Day 24: Fever #LyricsPrompt #LyricsPrompt2025
I see all your songs, and raise you the most 2003 song of 2003.
Hot Action Cop - Fever for the Flava
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W6d...

YouTube video by Rita MacNeil - Topic Fast Train To Tokyo

Day 23: Train #LyricsPrompt #LyricsPrompt2025
I see folks are entering round two... so having (affectionately!) peanut galleried your epic #CanCon project for insufficient Rita (& friends) content, it's perhaps time to be the change.
Rita MacNeil - Fast Train to Tokyo
www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVTu...

Didn't make it to #UnionConf in person this year but at least got my name on a poster, together with a bunch of good folks from @stoptbcanada.bsky.social.
(Definitely wouldn't have been as dapper a presenter as @yassentch.bsky.social though).

Doctor and nurses are leaving Nunavik over water shortages that affect care PUVIRNITUQ - Doctors and nurses in Quebec's Nunavik region say constant water shortages are a factor that is pushing some colleagues to leave, in a region where retention of staff

Pretty grim headline on multiple levels: "Doctor and nurses are leaving Nunavik over water shortages that affect care" www.thecanadianpressnews.ca/national/doc...

Last week's FAAE meeting on Canada's Africa Strategy prioritized economics and "deals" (while totally glossing over aid cuts).
Now at Africa's first #G20 summit (coinciding with Canada slashing its #GlobalFund contributions), it seems Africa is a lower priority for those deals?
🤔

Screenshot of the cover of the Final Report of the National Pharmacare Committee of Experts 2025 from this link: https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/hc-sc/documents/services/publications/health-system-services/health-system-services-report-national-pharmacare-committee-experts/report-national-pharmacare-committee-experts.pdf

Lots to like in this #pharmacare report (it's feisty!) tho I still worry its approach to WHO #EssentialMedicines lets fall through the cracks the many drugs on the WHO EML💊📜, from #albendazole to #tuberculosis drugs, that aren't actually sold in Canada despite being the recognized standard of care.

Health Canada lost $20-million worth of pharmaceuticals this year from national stockpile Agency says it was due to a ‘temperature deviation’ and refuses to say what was lost, citing national security implications

For clarity, here: Health Canada didn't "lose" them in the sense that they didn't, like, "fall off the back of a truck". Health Canada says there was a temperature deviation that, presumably, led to spoilage of temperature-sensitive products like vaccines or drugs. Which is bad, yes, but different.

"Canada cuts back spending on fighting infectious diseases at G20 in South Africa" www.timescolonist.com/the-mix/cana...

No more feminist foreign policy, Carney says Prime Minister, who made the comments at the G20 summit in Johannesburg, has placed less emphasis on feminist policies than the Trudeau government

It's official, folks. Canada has abanadoned its feminist foreign policy www.theglobeandmail.com/world/articl...

I feel whatever the opposite of subtweeted is?

YouTube video by acdcVEVO AC/DC - Rock N Roll Train (Official 4K Video)

Day 23: Train #LyricsPrompt #LyricsPrompt2025
AC/DC - Rock N Roll Train
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrFv...

Muddled #GlobalFund PR from Canada talking about "continued leadership in global health" while "recalibrating contributions" (16% cut before counting inflation) & highlighting pre-cut achievements.🙄
"Canada announces [diminished] commitment to the global fight against HIV, tuberculosis and malaria"

Ethiopia's Ministry of Health doing a good job providing daily updates on the #Marburg outbreak:

Lessons from the Interagency Emergency Health Kit for access to essential medicines in Canada - Journal of International Humanitarian Action Despite Canada’s efforts to position itself as a global health leader, important medicines, including multiple drugs found on the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines, are not available domestically....

The absence of some WHO #EssentialMedicines from Canada (& ensuing access barriers when Canadians need them) is a longstanding issue.
A while back @jwnickerson.bsky.social & I wrote how Canada had just 10/14 drugs👀 in the first aid kit version of the WHO EML.
(*11/14 in most recent kit update)

Canada's #Budget2025 (which grotesquely frames a $2.7billion cut in international assistance as "Savings", & rather than leading by continuing to give more to global health than "other similar economies" chooses to follow those similar economies despite clear & deadly impacts of their cuts) passes.

YouTube video by Minister Faust Milk commercial: Muh-muh-muh Moo Cows

Day 22: Adore #LyricsPrompt #LyricsPrompt2025
The Dairy Farmers of Alberta - Muh-muh-muh Moo Cows
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uw-l...

Screenshot of the final paragraph of the press release linked above, reading "Today, we call on the South African government to demand that Gilead includes additional African licensees with manufacturing capacity in its voluntary licensing arrangements in the interests of fostering self-reliance; and to begin to take steps to issue a compulsory license against Gilead. This will open pathways to generic supply and ensure lifesaving innovations are not held hostage to corporate greed and political interests. South Africa must also insist on and ensure that the Global Fund disclose the prices it will pay Gilead, for the initial allocation, since public resources are implicated. Transparency is not negotiable, nor our lives. "

The conclusion of the press release calling for action from the South African government on access to #lenacapavir.
#Gilead #GlobalFund #HIV