Health IQ: RSV vaccines at a cost, Ozempic and stomach paralysis

Why the cost of RSV vaccines has experts concerned

A vaccine for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is now available for older Canadians. But the price tag that comes with it has health experts worried it may deter people from rolling up their sleeves this cold and flu season.

RSV is a severe and highly contagious respiratory virus, especially for younger children and older adults.

“So, while RSV certainly can cause hospitalizations in younger people, it really is older Canadians that actually bear the real brunt of this and represent over 80 per cent of the deaths that happen from this virus every year,” warned Dr. Samir Sinha, the director of geriatrics at Sinai Health and the University Health Network in Toronto.

On Aug. 4, Health Canada approved the first vaccine for RSV for adults aged 60 and over. The vaccine has already started rolling out across the country but is not publicly funded (in most provinces), meaning most older Canadians may have to pay out of pocket for it.

Sinha and his colleagues published a report Wednesday by the National Institute on Ageing (NIA), encouraging provinces and the federal government to fund the RSV vaccine in order to make it more accessible to Canadians.

Read more about the report and what provinces have said about the cost of the RSV vaccine.

Can Ozempic cause stomach paralysis?

There may be a link between taking popular weight loss drugs, like Ozempic, and developing stomach paralysis, according to a University of British Columbia study published in JAMA on Thursday.

Ozempic, Wegovy, Rybelsus and Saxenda are all medications used to treat Type 2 diabetes; however, they are also marketed as weight-loss drugs.

The UBC researchers found that when people take these drugs strictly for weight loss, it can cause a serious risk of medical conditions, such as pancreatitis, bowel obstruction, gastroparesis (stomach paralysis) and biliary disease (a group of conditions affecting the gall bladder).

“It is relatively a rare occurrence. But I think what’s more concerning is that when you have millions and millions of people taking these medications, that one per cent can become tens or even hundreds of thousands of people who could potentially experience these events,”  Mohit Sodhi, a researcher on the study and a pharmaco-epidemiology researcher at UBC, told Global News.

Although the findings of the study link the drugs to serious health concerns, Dr. Tom Elliott, the medical director of BC Diabetes, said he was skeptical of the findings and pointed to several flaws in the methodology.

Read more about the study on Ozempic and why Elliott believes it has limitations.

— THE TOPIC —

Probiotics and newborns

— WHAT EXPERTS ARE SAYING —

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is cautioning hospitals against the use of probiotics for preterm infants following the death of a baby who was administered the supplement.

In a warning letter published on Sept. 29, the FDA said preterm infants who are given probiotics are at risk of invasive, potentially fatal diseases caused by the bacteria or fungi contained in probiotics.

While preterm infants in Canadian hospitals are also administered probiotics, there has been no similar warning issued in Canada.

However, Dr. Belal Alshaikh, a neonatologist at Alberta Health Services, said although there may be small risks involved, probiotics can play a crucial role in saving the lives of premature infants.

“When we use a probiotic, we always look at how many lives we saved with the probiotic,” he said. “You can save anywhere between 100 to 150 lives with the probiotic versus one case that could cause infection from the probiotic strain in the product that causes death or harm for the babies.”

In a 2022 position statement, the Canadian Paediatric Society said although the literature on the subject is conflicting, “present evidence suggests” probiotics can decrease mortality and lower the incidence of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) in preterm and low birth weight babies.

However, the statement said there have been cases of premature babies developing sepsis when using the product.

“The effect of probiotics on the developing immune system is being investigated, with their long-term effects still not fully known,” it read.