COVID-19 outbreak at a residential apartment building in Northern Ontario, Canada.

In February 2021, a cluster of Beta variant (B.1.351) coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases were identified in an apartment building located in Northern Ontario, Canada.

Risk factors associated with group A Streptococcus acquisition in a large, urban homeless shelter outbreak.

Objective: Group A Streptococcus (GAS) is a frequent cause of outbreaks in healthcare institutions, yet outbreak reports in the literature from homeless shelters are less common, despite an increased risk of severe GAS infection in homeless populations. In 2016, we conducted a case-control study to identify significant risk factors associated with GAS acquisition in a protracted, 19-month outbreak of GAS in a large, urban men's homeless shelter in Ontario, Canada.

Methods: Cases (individuals with either clinical GAS emm74 infection or asymptomatic carriers of GAS emm74) and controls were identified from shelter residents from February to September 2016.

At-a-glance - Concurrent monitoring of opioid prescribing practices and opioid-related deaths: the context in Nova Scotia, Canada.

Timely public health surveillance is required to understand trends in opioid use and harms. Here, opioid dispensing data from the Nova Scotia Prescription Monitoring Program are presented alongside fatality data from the Nova Scotia Medical Examiner Service. Concurrent monitoring of trends in these data sources is essential to detect population-level effects (whether intended or unintended) of interventions related to opioid prescribing.

Evaluation of a fentanyl drug checking service for clients of a supervised injection facility, Vancouver, Canada.

Background: British Columbia, Canada, is experiencing a public health emergency related to opioid overdoses driven by consumption of street drugs contaminated with illicitly manufactured fentanyl. This cross-sectional study evaluates a drug checking intervention for the clients of a supervised injection facility (SIF) in Vancouver.

Methods: Insite is a facility offering supervised injection services in Vancouver's Downtown East Side, a community with high levels of injection drug use and associated harms, including overdose deaths.

Impact of biogas digesters on cookhouse volatile organic compound exposure for rural Kenyan farmwomen.

Women living on rural Kenyan smallholder dairy farms burn wood as biofuel in family cookhouses. Unventilated biofuel combustion produces harmful levels of respirable particles and volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions in indoor environments. Biogas digesters, which can generate high methane-content biogas from livestock manure composting were recently installed on 31 farms.

Impact of biogas digesters on wood utilisation and self-reported back pain for women living on rural Kenyan smallholder dairy farms.

Women living on rural Kenyan dairy farms spend significant amounts of time collecting wood for cooking. Biogas digesters, which generate biogas for cooking from the anaerobic decomposition of livestock manure, are an alternative fuel source. The objective of this study was to quantify the quality of life and health benefits of installing biogas digesters on rural Kenyan dairy farms with respect to wood utilisation.

Pilot study on the impact of biogas as a fuel source on respiratory health of women on rural Kenyan smallholder dairy farms.

Biomass burning in indoor environments has been highlighted as a major cause of respiratory morbidity for women and children in low-income countries. Inexpensive technological innovations which reduce such exposures are needed. This study evaluated the impact of low tech compost digesters, which generate biogas for cooking, versus traditional fuel sources on the respiratory health of nonsmoking Kenyan farmwomen.