NewsDesk @bactiman63

Canadian health officials at all levels are investigating an outbreak of norovirus and gastrointestinal illnesses involving four provinces.

Public domain image/Daderot

Based on the investigation findings to date, the outbreak is linked to consumption of raw oysters from B.C. Some oyster harvesting areas in B.C. that have been associated with illnesses in this outbreak have been closed as a part of the investigation. These closures aim to prevent further illness.

As of March 30, 2022, there have been 279 cases of norovirus and gastrointestinal illness linked to consumption of B.C. oysters reported in the following provinces: B.C. (262), Alberta (1), Saskatchewan (1), and Ontario (15). Individuals became sick between mid-January and late March 2022, and no deaths have been reported. Although not all cases of illness have been tested, testing of several cases has confirmed the presence of a norovirus infection.

Food recalls were conducted on February 18, March 20, March 23, and March 27, 2022 for oysters from B.C.

Acute gastrointestinal illnesses such as norovirus illness are common in North America and are very contagious, affecting all age groups. However, pregnant women, people with compromised immune systems, young children and the elderly are at risk for developing more serious complications, like dehydration.

Raw oysters contaminated with noroviruses may look, smell and taste normal. The following safe food-handling practices will reduce your risk of getting sick:

• Do not eat, use, sell, or serve any recalled oysters.
• Avoid eating raw or undercooked oysters. Cook oysters to an internal temperature of 90° Celsius (194° Fahrenheit) for a minimum of 90 seconds before eating.
• Discard any oysters that did not open while cooking.
• Eat oysters right away after cooking and refrigerate leftovers.
• Always keep raw and cooked oysters separate to avoid cross-contamination.
• Do not use the same plate or utensils for raw and cooked shellfish, and wash counters and utensils with soap and warm water after preparation.
• Wash your hands well with soap before and after handling any food. Be sure to clean and sanitize cutting boards, counters, knives and other utensils after preparing raw foods.

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Noroviruses can be transmitted by ill individuals and are able to survive relatively high levels of chlorine and varying temperatures. Cleaning and disinfecting practices are the key to preventing further illnesses in your home.

• Thoroughly clean contaminated surfaces, and disinfect using chlorine bleach, especially after an episode of illness.
• After vomiting or diarrhea, immediately remove and wash clothing or linens that may be contaminated with the virus (use hot water and soap).
• If you have been diagnosed with norovirus illness or any other gastrointestinal illness, do not prepare food or pour drinks for other people while you have symptoms, and for the first 48 hours after you recover.

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Over the faint sound of a group drum circle in the next room, dozens of adults with developmental disabilities worked quietly at long, colorful tables to fulfill a production contract by a local shaving oil company. Some filled bottles with the oil, while others used a hot air gun to seal the plastic packaging. One dexterously threaded small sample packets into brochures. A few roamed the tables overseeing the work.

All the workers — verbal or nonverbal, blind or seeing — worked for a piece rate far below that of minimum wage, owing to a 1938 law that carved out exceptions for individuals with disabilities. National estimates peg the average effective wage for these workers at little more than $3.30 an hour.

But the fate of workshops like this one — San Antonio’s Mission Road Developmental Center, one of the largest in the country — are in question, as federal and state lawmakers have in recent years whittled down the exemptions under which employers can pay below minimum wage.

A recent report from the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights argues the exemption should be phased out entirely because these “sheltered workshops,” as they are called, trap workers in “exploitative and discriminatory” job programs. And disability-rights advocates say the program limits the potential of these workers with special needs.

Meanwhile nonprofit organizations like Mission Road and some families argue that eliminating these sheltered workshops would take a needed option away from the many adults who are happy to be there — especially those whose disabilities would be especially challenging for general employment.

Some 2,500 workers in Texas are paid subminimum wages at these sheltered workshops, including nearly 400 in San Antonio.

Stuck in the mud

James Meadours, president of the disabilities civil rights group Texas Advocates, said sheltered workshops tend to suffocate possibilities for their workers.

“People get stuck in the mud there,” he said. “They think they can’t do something else in the community. They don’t know what’s out there.”

Meadours, who has an intellectual disability, worked at a workshop in Oklahoma for seven years, where he watered plants for an effective wage of 50 cents an hour. It took him a year to afford a bus ticket to Colorado to visit his aunt and uncle, he said.

James Meadours, president of the disabilities civil rights group Texas Advocates, made 50 cents an hour while working at a nursery in Oklahoma. He posed for a photo near the San Antonio River on Friday. Credit: Nick Wagner / San Antonio Report

Meadours left the workshop in 1990 and found himself free to make mistakes and to learn from them. He accepted without question the first job he was offered, working at a cafeteria under a boss he described as disrespectful and not understanding of his condition. He left that job after a few months without any other work lined up, spending another half year without employment. His next job, at a clothing store, brought him “five wonderful years” under a supportive boss. His above-minimum wages there allowed him to move out of his group home and find his own apartment.

Now living in San Antonio near the Blue Star Complex, he recently celebrated his 30th year of living in his own place, a far cry from the group home he once lived in. “I’m very proud of that,” he said.

Meadours’ journey parallels a development in how governments treat their citizens with disabilities. In 1990, the same year he left his workshop, the Americans with Disabilities Act was signed into law, a landmark civil rights legislation that made disabilities a protected class. Dennis Borel, executive director for the Coalition of Texans with Disabilities, said the 1938 law establishing the subminimum wage belongs to an earlier and less enlightened era, when governments thought the best approach was to isolate those with developmental disabilities, rather than provide individualized support.

“That was a time when it was still legal to discriminate based on a person’s disability,” he said.

His organization supported a successful 2019 bill in the Texas Legislature, authored by state Sen. Joan Huffman (R-Houston) and state Rep. John Raney (R-College Station), that eliminated the subminimum wage for state contractors.

The bill dovetailed with efforts in other states, as well as moves on the federal level. This past week, the Biden administration announced commitments to eliminate the subminimum wage for workers with disabilities. The announcement follows an unsuccessful effort in Congress last year to repeal the 1938 law.

‘Therapeutic pay’

Mission Road says participation in its workshops is a matter of choice.

“Some of our clients couldn’t do a minimum-wage job,” said Lora Butler, Mission Road Developmental Center’s executive director. “This way, they can get a paycheck, and they can say they go to work. It gives them purpose and confidence.”

Joel Gaitan slips plastic seals over the caps on oil samples so they can be properly sealed and distributed Thursday at the Mission Road Developmental Center’s workshop. Gaitan couldn’t recall his exact age but knows he’s in his 60s and enjoys working with his hands. Credit: Kaylee Greenlee Beal for the San Antonio Report

Mission Road holds certifications for 224 workers to be paid subminimum wages at its workshop, making it the second-largest employer of its kind in Texas.  

But leaders at the organization see themselves not as employers but, rather, service providers, whose workshop is one of many programs available to their clients alongside housing, day care and life skills training. The wages it pays workers are considered by the IRS to be “therapeutic pay.”

Though the wages are paid for by the production contracts from local companies, a majority of the nonprofit’s $17 million in revenue in 2020 came from state funding for these programs, including the workshop, according to nonprofit filings.

Butler calls the workshop a “first step to getting a job,” allowing their clients to experience a low-stress, flexible work environment. There are no production quotas, no discipline for absenteeism or tardiness and no limits on work breaks.

The Texas Workforce Commission checks in with workers at least once a year — twice for younger workers — to ask if they want help finding a job in the broader community, which Mission Road also provides support services for. Butler said around two-thirds choose to stay in the sheltered workshop.

One worker, Gary Burrough, 50, has worked there for years, first entering Mission Road’s care when he was 19 years old. He once worked a regular job, program directors say, but since then has chosen to work exclusively at the workshop. “This is the place I like best,” he said. “All my friends are here.”

The system isn’t perfect. Recently there was a period in which some workers started at the workshop without first having been consulted by the Texas Workforce Commission on their employment options. In 2020, the Department of Labor ordered Mission Road to reimburse 27 workers a total of roughly $3,600 in back pay, retroactively enforcing the hourly minimum wage for that period.

Victor Rodriguez, 25, uses a heat gun to seal plastic casings around the tops of oil samples Thursday at the Mission Road Developmental Center’s workshop. Rodriguez has worked the same job at the center for the past six years. Credit: Kaylee Greenlee Beal for the San Antonio Report

An alternative for some

Endeavors Unlimited, like Mission Road, is a Texas-based nonprofit employing workers with developmental disabilities. But it pays its workers wages between $13.50 to nearly $16 an hour depending on the job. And like Mission Road, it also provides housing, life skills training, and job supportive services.

“There has to be a future beyond [the subminimum wage] that is more integrated,” said Elique Guerra, Endeavors Unlimited’s program director. “And to be integrated, you have to be competitive with salaries.”

He said if the point is to instill pride in these individuals and give them a pathway to financial independence, only a competitive salary can do that.

The 40 or so workers it employs across Texas have a variety of disabilities, but they compete for landscaping and custodial contracts against other private employers, to maintain and beautify hundreds of acres or to clean and disinfect large government buildings.

Far from a liability, the unique structure of their teams attracts repeat customers, said James Bower, a regional manager, such as systems that help its workers with time management.

The result is a loyal and consistent workforce, Bower said. “We show people day by day what people with disabilities can do.”

“I struggle with IDD every day,” Bower said, using a catch-all term that stands for intellectual and developmental disabilities. “It’s not stopped me from going to the highest point I can go.”

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Originally Appeared Here

We see the adaptations that event organizers, companies, and hostesses have come up with that are not only clever, but make sense to keep everyone healthy

The lifting of restrictions on gatherings has all of us slowly coming together for causes and events outside the house. However, we still need to be cautious and mindful of the virus while returning to the socials that we all miss so much. In fact, as we enter this new hybrid way of working and socializing beyond the virtual conference platforms we have come accustomed to, we see the adaptations that event organizers, companies, and hostesses have come up with that are not only clever, but make sense to keep everyone healthy.

Charcuterie tables and boards have now become personal and hand-carried. Virtual events hosts can opt to send snacks and meals in sustainable packaging as we move away from single-use plastics. Planning for smaller events and hosting at home also reflects these changes in our behavior, as we are more mindful of our consumption.

Here are three ways that we can snack safely, in small and convenient packages that are also fun and innovative, yet still providing the same charcuterie experience.

NEW, NEAT, CLEAN. New ways to present charcuterie include paper acrylic single serving boxes. Photo by Michelle Aventajado

During Rustan’s recent summer launch that I attended, I was pleasantly surprised to see such mindful planning when it came to snacks. The summer shopping sale was my first time back to media events and I was so happy to see my momma friends again.

FREEDOM. Feeling a new sense of freedom when chatting and shopping with the girls for the first summer event of the season. L-R: Rose Fres Fausto, Carmel Rivadelo-Villongco, Nicole Wuthrich De La Cruz, Marie Field Faith, et moi. Photo by Michelle Aventajado

Planning for events that are still strictly online includes delivering snacks, meals, or tokens of appreciation. Delivering snacks effectively is just as important as disinfecting everything that comes into our homes. Taking all things into consideration while being vigilant with hygiene and disinfection is still the first line of defense when keeping our homes safe.

I can even imagine entertaining in an outdoor setting with these little tins for two on the picnic table. It’s super easy to source ingredients and tins as cheeses and meats are from Sourdough Café and Deli while the tins, nuts, and cranberries are from Gavino’s Bake Shop.

Even using recycled jars, or small cocktail glasses gives us the opportunity to use what we already have in the house. Even using mismatched glasses and jars can add character to the table.

JARCUTERIE. Taking the personal meat and cheeses to another level while entertaining at home offers the ability to be mindful in packaging too. Photo by Aleka’s Get Together

Thinking outside the box (or tin) is also easy when there are cones and creativity! Cones can be used for both savory and sweet combinations that offer guests of larger gatherings the option of snacking while on the move. Even if local vendors and caterers have already been offering this tapered hand held snacking option here in Manila, it suddenly takes on a new meaning after the pandemic has changed the way we entertain and gather. 

CONE. Using single serving cones that are sustainably made also alleviates the worry or spreading any germs. Photo by Graze HTX

Perhaps, as we continue to adjust, step outside the home a little more, and find our way to intimate gatherings with friends and family, we will continue to find more sustainable and sanitary ways to nosh, chat, and socialize again. – Rappler.com

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My news feed is getting filled with pups dying from parvo, and dogs fighting distemper, with some losing the battle. Some of the dogs died despite all efforts of owners to save them.

Most of the dogs who survived twitch like they are about to have a seizure anytime. The damage to the nerve system is irreversible, the vets said. Thus if the dog has started twitching during his battle with the distemper virus, the twitching will stay even if he survives.

Nica was six weeks old when she was infected with parvo virus. She survived through an intensive medical intervention which cost a lot! This could have been prevented if her owner had her vaccinated.

To give your pups and adult dogs protection from parvo and distemper respectively, please have them vaccinated. We give the 5-in-1 or 6-in-1 vaccine to our dogs and rescues. Your pup or rescued dog needs a series of shots during the first year, with each shot given every two weeks. Every year thereafter, your dog will be given the booster shot or one shot to protect him from illnesses. Please talk to your vet about this.

However, pet parents must keep their dogs’ immune system strong by giving good food and vitamins recommended by the doctor, exercising or walking them, and making them feel loved by hugging and cuddling them.

When the immune system of a dog gets weak, the dog can still be infected with a deadly virus.

To prevent parvo from infecting rescues and personal dogs, we disinfect cages which were used to bring a dog to the clinic or any public place.

How does a pup get parvo?

1.When a member of the family has stepped on poop (sometimes, we do not see traces of poop on the road) and brings the shoes inside the house.

2. When the pup is brought to a place where another pup has pooped like parks, restaurants, or the streets (during walking) and the pup steps on the poop or traces of poop, then licks his/her paws.

How does a dog get distemper?

1. The distemper virus is in the air. This means a dog within 500 square meters of a dog positive for distemper can get infected if not vaccinated and his immune system is weak.

2. A dog can get the virus in public places frequented by dogs like malls, parks, and restaurants, among others.

If a human went to a place with dogs and one dog is positive for distemper, the human becomes a carrier.

If one of your dogs has been infected with parvo or distemper, you have to keep your infected dog isolated, as far away as possible from other dogs. You also have to clean spaces all the time, for at least three months, and a maximum of six months.

When we were feeding about 89 dogs in the Cainta pound in 2014 every day for six weeks, all volunteers of Save Animals of Love and Light (Save ALL Inc.) were reminded of the following measures to prevent bringing the virus home to their pets and rescues:

a. When we leave the pound and we are more than 500 meters away from the pound already, even if we do not want to, we sprayed Lysol disinfectant on our bodies and shoes (eyes closed and nose covered of course). We do this to make sure stray dogs or unleashed owned dogs on the streets will not get infected.
b. Stay somewhere else with no dog for at least two hours. But it is better to let four hours pass before going home.
c. Change clothes and shoes in a restroom in a fast food resto or mall where there are no dogs before going home. Put the clothes in a paper or plastic bag, spray Lysol on the clothes again.
d. If you can, wash your face and hands and other exposed skin with Safeguard or a soap that can disinfect.
e. At home, take a bath before entering the house. You can wash your hair and exposed parts in the garage. Change your clothes again.
f. Put clothes in a basin with Joy dishwashing liquid to disinfect your clothes.
g. In another basin, put your shoes. Or spray Lysol thoroughly.
h. If you have a lot of dogs and cats at home, and you have rescues too, please never bring shoes or slippers you wore outside your home inside the house or in areas where the dogs and cats stay.

Recently, we discovered a more effective disinfectant to prevent illnesses in our home, and the places where rescues of Save Animals of Love and Light (Save ALL Inc.) stay. It is easy to use, too, and it is safe for pets. You can directly spray on fur of dogs and cats after a visit to the vet, items used by pets, surfaces, cages, areas you want to clean, shoes you used outside or on a tray which people now put at the entrance of their homes to disinfect.

Save Animals of Love and Light (Save All Inc.) is grateful to Nude Handmade Essentials and Joyce Esteban for sending over these disinfectants and madre de cacao shampoo for the rescues of Save ALL. This will help us keep the areas where dogs and cats stay safe for them as we can disinfect all the time. The madre de cacao shampoo helps us to address better the skin issues of former stray dogs.

Called Clean Pro’s PARVOTECT, it is distributed by Nude Handmade Essentials. Joyce Esteban of Nude Handmade Essentials said “there is no need to dilute it, just spray directly on the surface or area you want to clean. “

Benefits:

· Protects your pets from illness-causing viruses, bacteria, and molds. Clean Pro’s Parvotect is a fragrance-free disinfectant that is effective against parvovirus and adenovirus, among others.
· It is also good to use in areas where a dog with distemper or parvo stayed.

Clean Pro’s Parvotect is available in Lazada Mall, Shopee, Yoorekka, Pickaroo, Grabmart, Pandamart, and Metromart. A gallon of Parvotect is only P820; a litter is P280.

Their madre de cacao shampoo and conditioner protects dogs from ticks and fleas and is only P348 per gallon and P128 per liter.

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Originally Appeared Here