Health IQ: Flu season clues, how AI could help detect early Alzheimer’s

Australia’s flu season brings bad news for kids

As Australia continues to navigate its influenza season, experts are warning about a surge in pediatric hospital visits caused by severe flu symptoms among children, signalling a cautionary forecast for Canada in the months ahead.

Since the flu season started in the Southern Hemisphere in late April, children have made up almost 75 per cent of those admitted to hospital, according to Australian health data.

“There’s a red flag waving at us right now, saying to be on the alert and to get protected,” said Dr. John Yaremko, a Montreal-based pediatrician.

So far, Australia hasn’t seen the same number of flu cases it did last year, but what concerns Yaremko is the age group that is most affected.

Australia’s flu season, which typically runs from June to October, has long been looked at by Canadian health experts in preparation for flu season here, which usually begins anywhere between late October and early January.

In an email to Global News, a spokesperson from the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) said officials are monitoring Australia’s flu season for situational awareness.

Read more on what could be in store for Canada this fall.

Detecting and combating Alzheimer’s disease has been a gruelling battle for families and the medical community, but a simple eye scan at an optometrist’s office could help ease that burden.

RetiSpec, a Toronto-based medical imaging company, uses AI and a retinal scan to help detect early signs of Alzheimer’s. The company is in the process of seeking regulatory approval for its scan in Canada and the U.S. The technology would be the first of its kind.

“One of the problems with Alzheimer’s is that it’s not picked up early,” said Sharon Cohen, neurologist and medical director of the Toronto Memory Program.

She added that it can also be difficult to detect the first signs of the disease.

“We actually call it probable Alzheimer’s…we can be wrong a lot of the time,” she said. “And with new treatments coming that are aimed at precision medicine, we need to get it right.”

Read more about the up-and-coming AI technology and how it works.

The World Health Organization this week said bird flu has killed dozens of cats in Poland — the first report of a high number of infected cats over a wide area within a country.

The United Nations health agency said it was notified by Polish authorities on June 27 of “unusual deaths in cats across the country.” The international health body then began investigating and as of July 11, it said 29 of 47 samples were found to be positive for bird flu.

Since the end of 2021, an unprecedented number of bird flu outbreaks among poultry and wild birds have been reported worldwide. Alongside wild bird and domestic poultry infections, there have been increased detections in non-avian species, the WHO says, including in wild animals, marine mammals and occasionally farmed or captive species.

The source of the exposure to the cats in Poland is unknown. However, the WHO suggested there are several possibilities for the source of infection, such as direct or indirect contact with infected birds or their environments, eaten infected birds or eaten food contaminated with the virus.

The agency noted the risk to humans remains low.

To date, human infections following contact with an infected cat have not been documented, the WHO said, and few cases of the disease have been detected in humans so far.