Polytechnics Canada welcomes the Federal Government’s Budget with its direct recognition for the role our members play in advancing Canadian innovation through our applied research and commercialization activities.

Budget 2010 contains several strategic announcements that will advance college and polytechnic research for the benefit of Canadian companies:

• doubling the support for research collaborations between colleges and
  local firms;
• support and direction for the federal granting councils to accelerate
  the translation of knowledge into practical applications;
• encouraging federal departments and agencies to adopt and use
  innovative prototypes from small and medium-sized Canadian
  businesses;
• continued support for enhancing regional innovation and
  commercialization through funding for regional economic development
  agencies;
• direction to the Canada Foundation for Innovation to partner with
  colleges in an effort to encourage private sector innovation, and
• a review of federal funding for research and development to ensure
  commercialization success and economic development in Canada.

“Considering the fiscal context and the need to return to balanced budgets, Polytechnics Canada appreciates the federal government’s new investments in applied research, development and commercialization, particularly the sustaining funding for the very successful College and Community Innovation Program (CCIP). This will be the federal government’s flagship program for helping local Canadian companies, in all sectors, to bring technology to market with the help of our members. CCIP provides our students with hands-on applied research experience so vital for creating a highly skilled Canadian workforce,” said John Davies, President of Humber and Chair of Polytechnics Canada.

Anne Sado, President of George Brown College and Board member of Polytechnics Canada said, “This year’s budget is recognition of the direct impact Canadian colleges and polytechnics can have in advancing economic development in our country through support for our industry partners.”

“The CCIP is a very important program that enables small and medium enterprises to work closely with the college and polytechnic sector to extend, test and validate our R&D. The commitment by the federal government is a wise investment in innovation that will lead to accelerated commercialization, growth and jobs in Canada,” said Niall Wallace, CEO Infonaut Inc., a small Toronto-based IT firm that is a partner of George Brown College in a CCIP project.

“The continued support for regional innovation is very welcome. Funding for regional economic development agencies like Western Economic Diversification ensures that activities that support commercialization and drive regional economic growth can carry on. We also look forward to participating in the government’s comprehensive review of all federal support for R&D to ensure that the contribution of polytechnic and college research conducted with Canadian industry partners to advance our innovative capacity is clearly understood,” said Dr. Don Wright, President of BCIT and Vice-Chair of Polytechnics Canada.

“As a company that has benefited greatly from our research partnership with SAIT Polytechnic in Calgary, we are very excited to see clear new investment in the CCIP program. We also welcome the launch of the new Small and Medium-sized Enterprise Innovation Commercialization Program, enabling companies such as mine to market our products to federal departments and agencies. These programs will greatly enhance the economic competitiveness of Conematic in these trying times, as well as allow us to hire more polytechnic graduates who contribute to our bottom line by their job-ready skills from day one,” said Doug Smith, President Conematic Heating Systems, Inc.

“We are encouraged that the government and the Minister of Industry are sending strong signals to the Canada Foundation for Innovation to include college and polytechnic research needs for infrastructure and equipment to enhance private sector innovation,” said Nobina Robinson, Chief Executive Officer of Polytechnics Canada. “This budget makes clear that the research-ready colleges and polytechnics are now integral players in the innovation agenda of this country. Canada is moving beyond theoretical research into supporting industry-driven research that will create the jobs of tomorrow.”

Polytechnics Canada is a national alliance of Canada’s leading research-intensive, publicly-funded colleges and institutes of technology. Located in Canada’s key economic regions, the current nine member colleges and institutes of Polytechnics Canada are: British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT), SAIT Polytechnic, Olds, Conestoga, Sheridan, Humber, George Brown, Seneca and Algonquin College.

Press Release

Infection Watch Live is hard at work in southeastern Ontario, now that we’re in the third week of this second wave of Novel H1N1 Influenza A (human swine flu).

Infonaut’s online, publicly-accessible Infection Watch Live solution, implemented for KFL&A Public Health, clearly shows widespread respiratory and gastrointestinal symptom presentation in the area.

Click the image below to see live infection data for southeastern Ontario:

School nurse shortage hampers swine flu response

As schools grapple with a resurgence of swine flu, many districts have few or no nurses to prevent or respond to outbreaks, leaving students more vulnerable to a virus that spreads easily in classrooms and takes a heavier toll on children and young adults.

…

When the swine flu emerged last spring, it was a school nurse in New York City — Mary Pappas at St. Francis Preparatory School — who helped identify and curtail the country’s first major outbreak after she noticed large numbers of students complaining of high fevers and sore throats.

Full article: here.

>>Tamiflu approved for Canadian babies

Canadian infants under one year old who are sick with the flu may receive the antiviral drug Tamiflu, Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq announced Thursday under new swine flu pandemic guidelines.

The Public Health Agency of Canada prepared the interim guidance to help doctors treating infants with influenza-like illness during the H1N1 pandemic.

…

“Although there are limited data supporting the use of Tamiflu in children under one, there now exists an urgent need for recommendations to treat this population, given this group’s increased risk for morbidity and mortality from influenza,” the agency said on its website.

Full Article: here.

>>Flu pandemic planning underway

Many businesses in Canada developed plans following the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2002 and the emergence and spread of the avian flu, and those have been pulled from the shelves and dusted off since the swine-flu outbreak started in late April.

Those plans are now being tested and companies are determining how they can be applied to the swine-flu pandemic that has made more than 10,000 Canadians sick.

…

Bell Canada, for example, a company that has had two employees confirmed with swine flu, started developing a pandemic plan about three years ago and activated it in the spring when swine flu began to emerge. Adjustments, however, had to be made.

…

Communication with employees is central to all the plans, said Michelis, and to that end Bell has been keeping staff up-to-date through internal e-mails and a pandemic website. It has also put up posters in company washrooms about proper hygiene and provided hand sanitizers. The company plans to host flu-shot clinics in the fall for its 42,000 employees.

Bell’s business is designated by the government as part of the country’s critical infrastructure and, as such, the company must have an emergency management plan, under which its pandemic plan falls.

Full Article: here.

>>Flu death toll at 700, school closures an option-WHO

The H1N1 virus has killed more than 700 people worldwide since emerging in April, and countries could consider closing schools to slow its spread, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Tuesday.
…
Some 125,000 laboratory-confirmed cases have been reported worldwide as of Tuesday, Bhatiasevi told Reuters.

Full Article: here.

>>Firms need pandemic crisis plan, report says

Amid reports of H1N1 virus outbreaks at summer camps and the prospect things could get worse this fall, more companies are being warned they need to prepare for a possible pandemic.

The Conference Board of Canada issued a report yesterday urging organizations of all kinds to act while they still have time.

Full Article: here.

>>WHO stops giving global swine flu tally

Swine flu is moving around the globe at “unprecedented speed,” the World Health Organisation said Friday, as it stopped giving figures on the numbers affected worldwide.

The WHO said in an information note on its website Friday that it would focus on regular updates from newly affected countries, in order to keep track of the global progress of the new influenza A(H1N1) pandemic.

…

The agency said the counting of all individual cases was no longer essential to assess the risk from swine flu, so it was best to watch the virus’s appearance in new territories.

Full Article: here.

>>Argentina declares emergency after flu found in pigs

Argentina’s government declared on Friday a national sanitary emergency due to the presence of the new H1N1 flu virus in pigs.

Earlier this month, animal health officials said workers at a pig farm in Buenos Aires province were suspected of having passed the new strain onto the animals.

Source: here.

>>U.K. Plans Massive Swine-Flu Vaccination

The medical establishment in Britain, the nation hardest hit by swine flu outside North America, is scrambling to roll out a large-scale vaccination program in an effort to protect its population against a virus that threatens to spread rapidly here in coming weeks.

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The number of cases in the U.K. is several times greater than in any other European country. Ian Jones, professor of virology at the University of Reading, says the U.K. has been hit hard because many Britons were traveling to Mexico and the U.S. when the virus first appeared there.

…

The country has ordered enough vaccine to cover all 60 million of its residents. The government plans to offer everyone free shots as soon as they become available”.

Full Article: here.

>>Swine flu in winter ‘for a third’

A third of the population may catch swine flu this winter and the virus could be here for up to five years, the government’s medical chief has warned.

But Sir Liam Donaldson told the BBC the deaths of people with no apparent health problems did not mean the virus was becoming more severe.
…

Sir Liam, who is chief medical officer for England, said it was “too early to say” whether a mortality rate of one in 200 – as suggested by some experts – was accurate.

…

Between 30 to 35% of people could come down with the virus this winter, he said. The disease was also likely to strike again in the years that followed.

Full Article: here.

Study: 1918 flu survivors seem immune to swine flu

The way swine flu multiplies in the respiratory system is more severe than ordinary winter flu, a new study in animals finds.

Tests in monkeys, mice and ferrets show that the swine flu thrives in greater numbers all over the respiratory system, including the lungs, and causes lesions, instead of staying in the nose and throat like seasonal flu.

In addition, blood tests show that many people who were born before the 1918 flu pandemic seem to have immunity to the current swine flu, but not to the seasonal flu that hits every year.

Full Article: here.

>>Drug-resistant swine flu seen in Danish patient

For the first time, a case of swine flu has proven resistant to Tamiflu — the leading pharmaceutical weapon against the new virus, international health officials said Monday.

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It appears the strain developed in a patient who was taking the drug to prevent illness, and it has not spread to others. That’s a much better scenario than if the patient had not been taking Tamiflu and picked up a drug-resistant strain already spreading through the public, said Bridges, associate director for science in the CDC’s influenza division.

Full Article: here.

>>Mexican swine flu victims were young, some healthy

Swine flu patients in Mexico were young and many were healthy before developing severe infections, doctors reported on Monday.

The first detailed studies of the outbreak of a new strain of H1N1 influenza show the epidemic in Mexico resembled the early stages of other pandemics, and showed there is no way yet to predict who will become severely ill from the virus.

Full Article: here.

>>Swine flu parties ‘a bad idea’

Throwing “swine flu parties” in an attempt to get immunity against the virus while it is a fairly mild form is not a good idea, doctors say.

Reports have emerged of people intentionally mixing with friends who have flu.

Their reasoning is that it is best to be infected before the winter when the virus could become more deadly.

But public health expert Dr Richard Jarvis said such behaviour could undermine the fight against swine flu.

…

But he added that if people actively sought to get flu, health services may not be able to act in the same way as they are doing now.

The approach to date – although it is changing in the areas such as Birmingham and London which have the largest outbreaks – has been based on containment.

Full Article: here.

>>WHO: 51 more swine flu deaths as pandemic spreads

The World Health Organization says the global tally of deaths from swine flu has increased by 51 to 231.
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The global body says Algeria, Bangladesh, Brunei, Fiji and Slovenia reported their first cases over the weekend.

Full Article: here.

>>Six-Year-Old Peel Girl Dies From H1N1 Flu Virus

The H1N1 flu virus has taken another life in Ontario – and this is the youngest patient yet. Health officials have confirmed a six-year-old girl succumbed to the ailment in Peel Region, making her the fourth person to die from the bug since it first surfaced earlier this year.

Full Article: here.

>>Pandemic Might Be as Severe as 1968 Hong Kong Flu

The pandemic sparked by swine flu may be as severe as the Hong Kong flu of 1968-69 that cost an estimated 0.7 percent of global gross domestic product, according to the World Bank.

…

Transmission of the bug is likely to accelerate as the flu season begins in the Southern Hemisphere and again when it returns in the Northern Hemisphere, the bank said in a report released yesterday. As many as 1.5 million people die in a normal flu season worldwide, and even a mild new flu might add another 1.4 million deaths, the report said.

…

Simulations of the potential economic and human costs of a pandemic based on avian flu that was undertaken for a 2006 report suggested that the costs of a global outbreak could range from 0.7 percent to 4.8 percent of global GDP, depending on the severity of the outbreak, the lender said.

Full Article: here.

>>Four new Canadian deaths related to swine flu

As four more people in Quebec and Manitoba were confirmed dead Tuesday after they contracted swine flu, three chiefs from northern Manitoba travelled to Ottawa, demanding a meeting with the federal and Indian affairs ministers for help with what they called a “pending atrocity” in their communities.

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Of the three communities, only St. Theresa Point currently has any doctors, according to the chiefs. Chief David McDougall, from St. Theresa Point, said his community had been hit with at least 27 confirmed H1N1 flu cases, including his own 20-year-old son. He said the community has at least two doctors working on the outbreak at the moment.

The chiefs said they lack the basic hygienic tools to stop the spread of the flu in their communities, where it’s not uncommon for a dozen people to live in two-bedroom houses, many with no running water.

Full Article: here.