Health IQ: Put down that chicken nugget

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Chicken Nuggets with French Fries and Green Salad

Measles cases soar in Canada

Measles, a disease once thought largely left behind, is making a worrying resurgence in Canada. So far in 2025, 95 cases have been reported, a sharp jump from just four cases at this time last year.

"If you look at Ontario in the 2025 calendar year, it's only February. And we already have roughly the same amount of cases of measles in February of 2025 as we did all of 2024. So no, we are not headed in the right direction," said Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious diseases specialist at Toronto General Hospital.

Measles is one of the most contagious infectious diseases — more contagious than diseases like COVID-19, influenza and chickenpox. This high level of contagiousness is one reason why measles outbreaks can spread rapidly, particularly in areas with low vaccination rates.

"It's so transmissible, if someone was in a room that had the measles and then they left the room, and an hour or two later, another person entered that room who is not immune to measles, there's a high probability that they would get infected with measles," Bogoch said.

"It has a knack for finding unvaccinated or under-vaccinated people and under-vaccinated communities."

So what is driving this spread of cases?

One of the main factors behind the spike in measles cases in Canada, Bogoch explained, is the significant global resurgence of the virus. This global rise in measles cases has led to importations of the virus into Canada, resulting in outbreaks, particularly in regions with pockets of unvaccinated individuals.

Read more about the rise of measles cases and whether or not you should get an updated shot.

Ultra-processed foods linked to heart and stroke deaths

You may want to put down that chicken nugget, fries and soda.

Research funded by the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada published Feb. 25 found that eating ultra-processed foods is linked to nearly four in 10 heart disease and stroke events in Canada, including death.

"We found that ultra-processed foods are a significant contributor to the burden of heart disease and stroke in Canada," said Virginie Hamel, a registered dietitian and PhD candidate at the Université de Montréal, who worked on the study.

The Canadian research — a first of its kind — found that an estimated 37 per cent of all new coronary heart disease and stroke cases and 38 per cent of all deaths from these cardiovascular diseases among adults in 2019 could be blamed on the consumption of ultra-processed food.

Men were more likely to be affected than women, the research found.

Soft drinks, chips, chocolate, candy, ice cream, sweetened breakfast cereals, packaged soups and hot dogs are some examples of ultra-processed foods.

The reason these foods are so bad for your health, Hamel said, is that they are high in sugar, salt and fat, which have already been associated with heart disease and stroke. They also contain additives, lack critical nutrients, are of poor quality and make people feel less full so people eat more of it, leading to weight gain, she added.

— THE TOPIC —

Mystery illness in Congo

— WHAT EXPERTS ARE SAYING —

A mystery illness first discovered in three children who ate a bat has rapidly killed more than 50 people in northwestern Congo over the past five weeks, health experts say.

The interval between the onset of symptoms — which include fever, vomiting and internal bleeding — and death has been 48 hours in most cases and "that's what's really worrying," said Serge Ngalebato, medical director of Bikoro Hospital, a regional monitoring centre.

These "hemorrhagic fever" symptoms are commonly linked to known deadly viruses, such as Ebola, dengue, Marburg and yellow fever, but researchers have ruled these out based on tests of more than a dozen samples collected so far.

The latest disease outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo began on Jan. 21, with 419 cases recorded and 53 deaths.

The outbreak began in the village of Boloko after three children ate a bat and died within 48 hours, the Africa office of the World Health Organization (WHO) said Monday.

There have long been concerns about diseases jumping from animals to humans in places where wild animals are popularly eaten. The number of such outbreaks in Africa has surged by more than 60 per cent in the last decade, the WHO said in 2022.

After a second outbreak of the mystery disease began in the village of Bomate on Feb. 9, samples from 13 cases were sent to the National Institute for Biomedical Research in Congo's capital, Kinshasa, for testing, the WHO said. All samples were negative for common hemorrhagic fever diseases, although some tested positive for malaria.