Health

New Delhi: Alembic Pharmaceuticals on Thursday said it has received approval from the US health regulator to market a generic medication for seizures. The company has received approval from the US Food & Drug Administration (USFDA) for its Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) Lamotrigine extended-release tablets (USP 200 mg, 250 mg, and 300 mg), the drug firm said in a regulatory filing.

The approved ANDA is therapeutically equivalent to GlaxoSmithKline LLC’s Lamictal XR extended-release tablets in strength of 200 mg, 250 mg, and 300 mg, it added.

Lamotrigine extended-release tablets are indicated for adjunctive therapy for primary generalised tonic-clonic seizures and partial-onset seizures with or without secondary generalisation in patients aged 13 years and older.

The drug is also indicated for conversion to monotherapy in patients aged 13 years and older with partial-onset seizures who are receiving treatment with a single antiepileptic drug.

According to IQVIA, Lamotrigine Extended-Release Tablets (200 mg, 250 mg, and 300 mg) have an estimated market size of USD 163 million for twelve months ending June 2024.

The company said it now has a cumulative total of 216 ANDA approvals from the USFDA.

Bengaluru: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday alerted public health officials and clinicians about the potential risk for drug overdose among individuals ordering counterfeit prescription medicines from online pharmacies.

The counterfeit pills sold through illegal internet-based pharmacies frequently contain fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that is the leading cause of drug overdoses in the United States, the health agency said.

Nearly 95 per cent of websites offering prescription drugs online operate illegally, the CDC said, citing data from the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy.

The U.S. Department of Justice on Monday pressed charges against certain illegal online pharmacies selling counterfeit prescription pills to tens of thousands of individuals in the United States.

The CDC urged individuals to be cautious of online pharmacies that operate without a license, do not require a doctor’s prescription and offer deep discounts.

(Reporting by Mariam Sunny in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona and Devika Syamnath)

A recently rediscovered Emily Carr painting is now being toured across Canada.

The 1912 piece, titled Masset Q.C.I. shows a memorial post, capped with a carved grizzly bear, that stood in the village of Masset on Haida Gwaii.

Earlier this year the painting was spotted by a New York-based art dealer hanging in a barn in the Hamptons.

He bought the painting for $50.

“You could just tell that painting had something special about it besides the fact that it was so legibly signed, which is not often the case with most art that you see,” Allen Treibitz, who bought the painting, told Global News.

“So that helped a little, but it definitely had a look and it was definitely very interesting.”

1:16
Indigenous artists come together to unveil new exhibit at Emily Carr University

The painting will go up for auction at the Heffel Gallery, along with four other of Carr’s works, next month in Toronto.

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The auction house believes Carr gifted the painting to a friend who lived in Victoria before moving to New York.

It is estimated it could fetch between $100,000 and $200,000.

“I’ve found some interesting things in my lifetime,” Treibitz said.

“This is the most significant find I’ve ever had.”

2:03
Artworks by Group of Seven, Emily Carr, Paul Kane to hit Toronto auction

Carr was born in B.C. in 1871 and her work is world-renowned for its focus on First Nations art and lifestyle and B.C. landscapes.

One of her paintings, called The Crazy Stair (The Crooked Staircase), sold for $3.39 million in 2013.

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How many alcoholic drinks do you have in a week? That question was posed to Canadians in a survey and most of them said they had no drinks at all, a new Statistics Canada report shows.

In 2023, more than three-quarters (77 per cent) of adults living in Canada’s provinces reported drinking at least one alcoholic beverage in the past 12 months. To better understand regular drinking behaviour, the 2023 Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) asked about alcohol use in the past seven days.

Over half (54 per cent) of people aged 18 and over reported not drinking any alcohol at all during the past week, while 15 per cent reported drinking only one to two drinks in the seven days. The survey said 15 per cent of respondents said they had between three and six drinks and another 15 per cent had seven drinks or more in the last seven days.

While the findings are similar to findings in 2015-2016, when 53 per cent respondents said they had not had any alcohol in the last week, the 2023 data comes after years of the COVID-19 pandemic that saw increases in drinking among many Canadians.

However, the numbers look different for men and women.

Nearly twice as many men (20 per cent) as women (11 per cent) said they had seven or more drinks in a week, which is the level of alcohol consumption linked to the highest risk of alcohol-related harms.

The number of men and women having three to six drinks a week (16 per cent for men, 15 per cent for women) was roughly the same, as was the number of men and women drinking one to two drinks in a week (15 per cent for men and 16 per cent for women).

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Women had a higher rate of abstinence, with 59 per cent saying they had no alcohol in the week, compared with 49 per cent of men.

0:33
Doctors should make alcohol screening routine, clinical guideline suggests

The survey also shows that younger people are drinking less than other age groups. The report said 67 per cent of people between the ages of 18 and 22 said they drank no alcohol, compared with all other age groups, for which the proportion ranged between 51 and 57 per cent.

A lower proportion of those aged 18 to 22 reported drinking seven or more alcoholic drinks in the past seven days (eight per cent) compared with those in the other age groups, where proportions ranged from 14 per cent to 17 per cent.

Quebec had the highest proportion (18 per cent) of people who said they’d had seven or more drinks in the past week, compared with the national average of 15 per cent.

Quebec also had a lower proportion (47 per cent) of people who said they had not had any drinks in the last week.

The proportion of people who had seven or more drinks was also higher in rural areas (19 per cent), compared with people living in urban areas (14 per cent). People in urban areas had a higher proportion of people (56 per cent) who had no drinks in the week, compared with 59 per cent for rural areas.

While the report did not go into causes, it linked higher salaries to higher alcohol consumption. The report said twice as many people in the highest income household bracket (22 per cent) drank seven or more drinks in the week compared with lowest income households (11 per cent).

Among those in the lowest household income bracket, 67 per cent reported not drinking any alcohol in the past seven days, which was higher than those in the highest income quintile, where 41 per cent reported not drinking any alcohol.

People working in the trades (23 per cent) and people working in the arts (22 per cent) reported drinking seven or more drinks at higher levels than the national average.

A Statistics Canada report in March showed that Canadians are skipping alcohol in favour of cannabis.

Recreational cannabis sales by provincial authorities increased by 15.8 per cent year over year. Canadians spent a total of $4.7 billion in the 2022-23 fiscal year, according to Statistics Canada, which is a $0.6-billion jump from the previous year.

A Statistics Canada breakdown says that works out to every Canadian of legal age spending $150 per year on the products, a number that has been steadily increasing since recreational cannabis was legalized in 2018.

Meanwhile, the volume of alcohol sales has declined for the second consecutive year. According to Statistics Canada, alcohol sales based on volume fell by 1.1 per cent, or 3,106 million litres, in 2022-23.

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As temperatures drop and more Canadians head indoors, the familiar sniffles, aches and pains may soon follow, signaling the arrival of cold and flu season.

In Canada, flu season typically runs from November to April, and while anyone can catch the flu, the virus can sometimes lead to severe complications — even death, which is why experts stress the importance of the annual flu shot.

In preparation,  some provinces are rolling out this year’s influenza shot over the next few weeks, beginning with vulnerable groups before expanding to the general public.

2:24
When will Albertans be able to receive fall COVID-19, flu vaccinations?

The dominant strain this year is expected to be influenza H3N2, with some H1N1 and influenza B circulating as well, though not in excessive amounts, according to Gerald Evans, an infectious disease specialist at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont.

“We have a fair bit of data from South America, Australia and New Zealand showing it’s an H3N2 year,” he said, adding that what happens in the Southern Hemisphere usually lays the groundwork for predicting which viruses are out there by the time they make their way north.

H3N2 is a form of influenza A and tends to cause more severe illness, particularly in older adults, young children and those with weakened immune systems.

It’s not just influenza that Canadians need to worry about — fall and winter also bring a rise in other respiratory illnesses, including rhinovirus (the common cold), respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and COVID-19.

Here is a look at what may be in store for this season.

Based on trends from countries in the southern hemisphere, this year’s influenza season in Canada will overall be considered “average,” Evans said.

In countries like Australia, the flu season was not early, running as usual from May to September, with an increase in cases during June and July. This pattern may indicate that Canadians could experience a peak in flu cases in late December and January, Evans explained.

“So our expectation would be a very typical season, starting in late December and early January, but it can be as late as February in March. And sometimes we see second waves,” he said.

But the onset of influenza season can be unpredictable, as Evans noted that it is often influenced by travel patterns. If there is an increase in travel from the southern hemisphere, it could lead to an earlier introduction of the virus.

1:21
NACI announces changes to the flu vaccine after strain disappears

“And of course, that’s all important because we look at our flu shot annual campaign to get flu shots into people to reduce the severity of disease,” he added.

Kevin Chan, a pediatric emergency doctor based in London, Ont., said that respiratory illnesses like RSV, typically start around later October and early November, depending on the year, and can spike very quickly.

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“What the Australians saw was they had a typical respiratory system season with influenza A, B and COVID. But one of the interesting things that they saw in Australia was that if you got sick with one virus, you were actually more prone to gets getting sick with other viruses,” he warned.

While influenza caused some illnesses and deaths in the southern hemisphere, the rates remained relatively average for what is typically expected, Evans said. But these numbers were significantly overshadowed by the continuing effects of COVID-19, he added.

“COVID was still accounting for most of the more severe cases, hospitalizations and deaths, particularly in Australia,” he said.

Canadians can expect a few key trends regarding COVID-19 this flu season, he said. Although the summer wave of COVID-19 appears to have peaked, the decline is slow. And with colder weather forcing more people indoors, he said we should anticipate a rise in cases.

“But the availability of new vaccine formulations by the end of September could help mitigate the impact of COVID-19 during the winter months,” he said.

4:17
Health Matters: Status of COVID-19 in Canada

The best way to protect yourself from respiratory illnesses is by getting vaccinated, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC). Vaccines are available for influenza, RSV and COVID-19, but their availability may vary depending on several factors such as age and location.

The flu shot is recommended for almost everyone who is six months of age and older, PHAC said. It protects against three or four different strains of the flu virus each season.

Receiving the annual vaccine helps protect you in several ways, PHAC stated.

It reduces the risk of severe illness from flu-related complications, safeguards those around you by lowering the likelihood of spreading the virus and decreases the overall burden on the health-care system during the respiratory virus season.

“When it comes to influenza, it really is the flu shot that’s going to help to keep you with a milder illness,” Evans said.

“Influenza is a pretty nasty infection when you get it. And what the flu shot does is it helps to make that a lot less severe, especially in very high-risk individuals. So those are very young and the very old, as well as some people who have underlying cardiac or respiratory diseases. It can be the difference between surviving an episode of flu in the hospital versus dying,” he added.

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Why do coughs linger post-respiratory infection?

The flu and COVID-19 are caused by different viruses. This means that the flu vaccine won’t protect you against COVID-19, PHAC warned.

Starting in the fall of 2024, the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) strongly recommends the most recently updated COVID-19 vaccines for previously vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals at increased risk of COVID-19.

Two updated mRNA vaccines (both targeting the KP.2 strain) are authorized for fall 2024 for those six months of age and over. Moderna’s SpikeVAX is available for those six months of age and over, and Pfizer’s Comirnaty shot is available for those 12 years of age and over.

The availability date for the COVID-19 vaccine has not yet been announced.

When it comes to RSV protection, vaccines are now available for older adults and pregnant individuals. Depending on the province,  families with infants and high-risk children two years old or younger will be able to access a publicly funded RSV vaccine.

2:05
Access to infant RSV protection differs across Canada

This fall and winter, Ontario, Quebec and Nunavut will offer the newer monoclonal antibody nirsevimab — approved by Health Canada in the spring of 2023 —  to all babies going through their first RSV season.

“I think if we can get in front of the peaking — that should start in late October and early November — if we can get the vaccines out by the beginning of October, I think we should prevent a big amount of the respiratory diseases from coming to our hospitals,” Chan said.

Aside from vaccines, Evans emphasized that the most fundamental way to protect yourself, especially during respiratory season, is regular hand washing.

“I always say it’s an easy thing to do, and certainly alcohol-based hand rubs work well,” he said. “Washing your hands is another important attribute to do to reduce your risk for infections.”

The Public Health Agency of Canada says it is not providing Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine this respiratory virus season, citing low demand.

It says the manufacturer requires a minimum order of its updated protein-based vaccine, called Nuvaxovid, which far exceeds the uptake by Canadians last year.

The agency says a very small portion of the doses ordered in 2023 were used and that its decision reflects efforts to limit vaccine wastage.

It is distributing two mRNA vaccines — made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna — that are approved for adults and children six months and older.

Both COVID-19 vaccines have been reformulated to target the recently circulating KP.2 subvariant of Omicron.

4:35
Health Matters: New COVID-19 vaccines approved & viruses travelling to Canada

Novavax’s vaccine, which was approved by Health Canada last month for adults and children 12 years and older, has been touted as an alternative to the mRNA vaccines.

The public health agency says provinces and territories have the option of ordering the vaccine — which has been updated to target the JN.1 subvariant of Omicron — directly from the company.

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As of Tuesday afternoon, several provinces – including Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Nova Scotia, P.E.I. and Newfoundland and Labrador – confirmed to The Canadian Press that they aren’t placing orders for Nuvaxovid.

The Public Health Agency of Canada said in an email that its contract with Novavax “only provides access to domestically manufactured vaccines, which Novavax has been unable to confirm for the 2024/25 season.”

The minimum order requirement was based on buying Novavax vaccines that were “internationally produced,” it said.

“Demand for Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine in Canada has been very low in previous years,” the public health agency said. “In 2023, 125,000 doses of the Novavax XBB.1.5 vaccine were ordered and available in Canada, of which only 5,529 doses were administered.”

In emails to The Canadian Press, Novavax confirmed that it produced its updated vaccine outside of Canada.

It said the company “significantly depends on its supply agreement with Serum Institute of India Pvt. Ltd,” but would not elaborate further.

—With files from Hannah Alberga in Toronto.

&copy 2024 The Canadian Press

MONTREAL – When Chris Boucher first played an NBA pre-season game in his home city in 2018, he was a raw talent trying to crack the Toronto Raptors roster.

Six years later, the 31-year-old is back in Montreal as the longest-serving Raptor — and the only remaining player from the 2019 championship team.

“It’s been nuts. It’s been crazy,” said Boucher, reflecting on his journey as the Raptors opened training camp at the Université du Québec à Montréal on Tuesday.

“People thought that surely I would only do a year or two, but now it’s been six or seven years, and I’ve been here longer than anyone else on that team,” he added to a pack of French-Canadian reporters there to greet the homegrown talent.

Toronto’s camp — which includes an open practice at McGill University on Friday night — runs through Sunday’s Raptors versus Washington Wizards pre-season matchup at Montreal’s Bell Centre.

Although Boucher has reached veteran status, he’s still playing for his next contract.

Boucher is entering the final year of his deal after watching his role on the Raptors diminish last season, but says he isn’t concerned following a constructive off-season where he worked closely with head coach Darko Rajaković.

“I’m not worried. I’ve put in a lot of work,” Boucher said. “I’ve talked with the coach, I’ve talked with the GM, we’ve spent a lot of time figuring out what I can do.

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“The team is young, and I’ve put myself in a good position to change what happened last year.”

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As he prepares to play in front of friends and family this week, Boucher is focused on having a solid camp after averaging 6.4 points and 14.1 minutes last season — his lowest numbers in years. He also played just 50 games because he sustained a knee injury in March.

Over the off-season, Boucher said he trained with Rajaković on his playmaking and understanding of the game.

They also worked on improving his mindset and “trying to get me to a better place,” and the head coach took notice.

“We had amazing and heart-to-heart conversations this summer, and I was really impressed with Chris, what he achieved,” Rajaković said. “He worked on his body, he got stronger, he added a couple of pounds of muscle, he was disciplined, he came in the gym, he put in a lot of work.

“That gives me a lot of confidence that he’s ready for the next step, that he’s ready to grow and he’s ready to fit in with our team.”

Rajaković said the season would dictate Boucher’s role and minutes, but he expects the Canadian to help younger players with his leadership while crashing the boards and playing disruptive defence when he’s on the floor.

“I want all 15 guys to put me in a really tough situation to make decisions about who’s going to be playing,” Rajaković said. “Chris is doing an amazing job, and I can see him doing a very important job for our team this year.”

Boucher may be in his 30s, but likes to remind people that he picked up the game far later than most.

“There are a lot of people who have been playing since they were eight or nine years old, but I started when I was 20,” said Boucher, who went undrafted in the NBA.

DAVION’S DEFENCE

Raptors president Masai Ujiri said Monday that the Raptors’ defence being among the league’s worst last season was “not something we’re proud of.”

Off-season acquisition Davion Mitchell wants to be part of the solution.

“That’s the reason I’m in this league,” the point guard said. “Playing defence, putting pressure on the ball, disrupting people offensively … that’s the reason why I’m here.”

The 26-year-old Mitchell, a ninth-overall draft pick in 2021, averaged 5.3 points and 1.9 assists with the Sacramento Kings last season, but has a reputation for his smothering on-ball defence.

“He has a good track history of doing that on a high, high level. My conversations with Davion go even further,” Rajaković said. “He needs to be better off ball … getting in the right spots, not falling asleep for a half of a second, just being as disruptive off the ball as much he is on the ball.”

BARNES EXCUSED

The Raptors excused star forward Scottie Barnes from the start of training camp due to personal reasons. Barnes did not travel with the team to Montreal, but the Raptors said he was expected to join the team later in the week.

Barnes, 23, averaged 19.9 points, 8.2 rebounds and 6.1 assists in his third NBA campaign last season and earned his first all-star selection.

Rajaković said he expects the team’s centrepiece to get up to speed in no time once he’s back.

“Scottie spent a lot of time around the team this year, we have communication daily,” Rajaković said. “He’s an extremely smart player, so he’s going to be able to pick that up very quickly.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 1, 2024.

&copy 2024 The Canadian Press

The number of deaths from breast cancer is on the decline, but new data out of the U.S. shows the prevalence of cases among women under 50 years of age is rising.

That has advocates for breast cancer screening once again urging change in Canada.

The study, published in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians on Tuesday, found the number of deaths declined by 44 per cent between 1989 and 2022.

“I think that’s amazing,” Kimberly Carson, CEO of Breast Cancer Canada, told Global News. “That’s why we work as hard as we do in research to be able to change those statistics.”

There were roughly 518,000 fewer deaths overall during that time span, though it notes certain demographics have not seen the same decline. American Indian/Alaska Native women saw no reduction in mortality, while Black women have a 38 per cent higher mortality than white women, despite a five per cent lower incidence rate.

In fact, the study notes this group has the lowest survival rate of any racial and ethnic group for every breast cancer subtype and stage of the disease, except for the “localized-stage,” at which they are 10 per cent less likely than white women to be diagnosed.

Even with these discrepancies, however, the study says the decrease in the number of deaths overall is in large part due to advances in treatment and earlier detection through screening.

“The sooner that we catch it, the better the outcome,” Carson said. “Certainly screening is obviously a huge, huge priority because we can catch it at Stage 0, Stage 1 … your chance of surviving breast cancer is almost 100 per cent.”

According to the study released Tuesday, breast cancer incidence has been rising by one per cent each year between 2012 and 2021.

The study noted the rising trend was mainly confined to hormone receptor-positive disease, in which breast cancer cells are found to have receptor proteins that estrogen and progesterone attach to, stimulating cancer to grow.

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In addition, the study notes associated risk factors such as increased excess body weight and continued decline in the fertility rate also contributed — the Canadian Cancer Society notes not becoming pregnant at all increases the risk for breast cancer, while “the more children a woman has, the greater the protection against breast cancer.”

The data found various differences depending on race and ethnicity, with Asian-American and Pacific Islander women seeing the fastest increase. Those under 50 saw a higher rise of 2.7 per cent compared with 2.5 per cent for those 50 and older.

Among white women, there was a 1.4 per cent annual increase under 50, compared with 0.7 per cent in those 50 and older.

The increase in cases among younger women is just the latest in a series of studies showing various types of cancers are on the rise in younger adults, with a study published in The Lancet in July showing higher incident rates in generation X and millennials for 17 of 34 cancer types, including breast, pancreatic and gastric forms.

Early detection is a key way to get ahead of the disease or treat it early, but that is proving to be a potential issue north of the border, where data suggests similar trends.

A study published in April found a similar increase among Canadian women, especially among those under 50.

There were an average 5.7 cases per 100,000 people among those in their 20s annually between 2015 and 2019, up 45.5 per cent from the number seen between 1984 and 1988.

There was also a 12.5 per cent increase between these two periods for those in their 30s, and 9.1 per cent for those in their 40s.

The Canadian Task Force on Preventative Health Care in May kept its guidance in place, with regular screening mammography only recommended for patients between the ages of 50 and 74, though women in their 40s can request it.

1:59
Breast cancer screening decision sparks review of Canada’s task force

The task force said its position was due to concerns of over-diagnosis and unnecessary biopsies, but some experts called it “outdated and flawed,” and Health Minister Mark Holland announced he was opening an external review into the task force amid its decision.

The task force’s move came even as the U.S. lowered its own recommended age to 40, and Ontario said screening would be expanded this fall.

Carson said the U.S. study shows that the rate among young women is rising and the lack of movement in Canada is “unfortunate.”

“It saves lives if we catch it earlier and it’s also less cost-intrusive onto the system if we can catch it earlier,” she said.

A recent Angus Reid poll last month, commissioned by the organization, found 94 per cent of Canadians felt screening should start at age 40, but more than 27 per cent reported neither they nor a loved one have been screened and depending on when cancer is caught, it changes the treatment.

“If you’re diagnosed at zero or Stage 1, you may just do lumpectomy and radiation and off you go, as opposed to let’s say Stage 3, where you’re looking at perhaps chemotherapy, surgery, more chemotherapy, radiation; it’s certainly a longer journey,” Carson said.

According to the Canadian Cancer Society, there are things you can do though to reduce your risk like limiting alcohol intake, being physically active and following screening guidance.

— with files from Global News’ Katie Dangerfield

&copy 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

A salmonella outbreak linked to reptiles has left one person dead and three others hospitalized in Canada.

The Public Health Agency of Canada said at least 25 people have been infected across seven provinces in this outbreak, which is the second one linked to geckos this year.

Cases have been reported in British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland and Labrador.

“Many of the individuals who became sick reported having direct or indirect contact with geckos, or the environments where these pets are kept, before their illnesses occurred,” PHAC said in a public health notice Friday.

“Some people who became sick did not touch or handle the geckos themselves, but lived in the same house where they were kept.”

The illnesses occurred between August 2020 and September 2024. Most of the people infected were females (64 per cent) and in the age range 1 to 103.

An investigation into the outbreak is ongoing and PHAC said that the number of cases is likely higher than what has been reported so far.

0:34
Salmonella outbreak linked to snakes and rodents

Salmonella is a bacterial infection commonly transmitted through contaminated food and water and it poses a significant health threat, especially to children and older adults, as it can lead to severe gastrointestinal symptoms, dehydration, and, in extreme cases, death.

People can also get sick with salmonella infection by directly touching reptiles or their environments, as well as through indirect contact by touching contaminated surfaces where these animals are kept.

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This could happen at birthday parties, school or daycare events, museums, science centres, zoos, or at a travelling reptile show, PHAC said.

To prevent infection, the agency has the following advice among other recommendations in its public health notice:

• always wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water immediately after touching a reptile or rodent, and anything they eat, or after being in the area where they live, play or touch
• if visiting an exhibit or event with reptiles, wash your hands when you leave animal areas, even if you do not touch the animals directly
• clean any surfaces or objects your reptile or rodent touches with soapy water followed by a household sanitizer
• never kiss a pet reptile
• always supervise children when they touch or play with reptiles
• keep reptiles and rodents and all their food, containers, enclosures, and any objects that have been in their enclosures, such as plants or enrichment items, away from the kitchen and other places where food is made or eaten
• clean or bathe reptiles in a dedicated plastic bin, not in the kitchen or bathroom sink

Symptoms of salmonella infection typically start between six and 72 hours after exposure and can last anywhere from four to seven days, according to PHAC. They may include fever, chills, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, headache, or abdominal cramps.

If you suspect you have salmonella, PHAC recommends seeing a health-care provider.

Most people recover on their own after a few days without any medical treatment, the agency said.

At least 36 people got sick with salmonella infection between March 2020 and March 2024 in a separate outbreak linked to geckos.

The salmonella strain of that outbreak was traced back to a gecko habitat at a home of a person who got sick.

&copy 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.