all right joining us live now is Dr Isaac bogos infectious disease specialist at Toronto General Hospital Dr bogos it's good to see you again we haven't chatted in a while thanks so much for joining us I want to start this morning by talking about whooping cough you know there's an outbreak in New Brunswick and of course Eastern Canada it's causing a concern for school as kids return uh we were just speaking in the break and whooping off is something that you know kids get vaccinated for it's been a while since my kids have gotten their jobs but what should parents think about you know with with the spread of this happening so unfortunately we're seeing the reemergence of vaccine preventable illnesses right now of course we're talking about whooping cough but we were talking about measles earlier again these are as you point out there are routine childhood immunizations for this whooping cough is routinely given at two months four months 6 months 18 months and then once again before a child enters school we know that many public health programs were disrupted during the toughest times of the pandemic people might have a dose of a vaccine it's just important to note that this is a vaccine preventable illness it causes a very severe cough in children the nickname of this disease is called the 100 day cough because it can cause a terrible cough for a long weeks and weeks and weeks uh and uh it's part of the routine childhood immunization program if you look at the yellow card if you're to to make sure you're up to date if there's any questions any concerns you can speak with a healthare provider you can go to a public health clinic we know many people don't have a family physician but there's public health clinics all over uh the province of Ontario where people can go to ask questions and if they're not up to date get they can receive an immunization for this okay yeah good advice there I think I had whipping cough when I was about N9 years old coupled with asthma and I remember a stay in the hospital uh wasn't fun so hopefully no kids have to deal with that uh but Dr bash the spread of Eastern equin incilius uh through mosquito bites this is you know we've heard of westnile virus but this is also pretty serious and and be deadly it has towns in Massachusetts trying to curb evening activities they've even set up a suggested curfew what can you tell us about this disease and the possibility of transmission here in Canada this is an extraordinarily rare infection I can't stress this enough this is an extraordinarily rare infection I believe the last case we had in Canada was in 2016 okay like this is extremely rare it is mosquito trans transmitted it's called Eastern equine and sephtis because the first cases were identified in horses in Massachusetts in the 1930s and sephtis means it causes inflammation of the brain yes while it's extraordinarily rare it does cause a very severe illness where about a third of people will will succumb to this illness and people who survive are very likely going to have some permanent neurologic deficits but again it is extraordinarily rare uh um sometimes it's when it is picked up it's usually usually in the summer months and it's usually in the eastern part of uh North America most of the cases have been identified in New England and around the Gulf Coast but yeah I mean Canada had a case way back in 2016 in a human and there have been uh horses uh who have been infected with this very rarely but still it's reportable including this year so uh you know there's a lot of good reasons to not get mosquito bites mainly because they're annoying and they're itchy and no one wants to get a mosquito bite a more common infection of course as you point out is the West Nile Virus which again mostly causes a fever and rarely causes a more severe neurologic uh issue and Eastern eoin entis is exceptionally rare uh anywhere uh and especially exceptionally rare in Canada but but it but is a very dangerous infection okay so it sounds like you're saying uh yeah Toronto hold your horses literally and figuratively you don't need to go into lockdown just yet over this triple mosquito by virus that's exactly what I'm saying um Hey listen the fact that we're having a conversation about it and can contextualize this so people know that the risk of Eastern eite and sephtis is about 0% in uh Canada I think is important but we all learned something about a virus that many people have never thought of before so that's exciting yeah okay Dr bogos unfortunately we're out of time but we always appreciate your time have a great uh weekend before school starts and we'll chat with you soon take care have a great day Jennifer thank you