What's in the news: Mar. 25 -- Saskatchewan's infant-HIV problem

Saskatchewan's "AIDS crisis"
Nearly one in four HIV-positive infants born in Canada from 2005 to 2007 were born in Saskatchewan, setting off concerns among Saskatchewan public health and obstetrics experts. [CBC News]

Reacting to the news, the Regina Leader-Post wrote, "Saskatchewan has an AIDS crisis." [Regina Leader-Post]

Dr Moira McKinnon, the province's chief medical officer, is studying the reasons for the disproportionate number of HIV-positive births. She suggested that drug users and sex workers need more attention paid to their health. [CBC News]

How do you solve a problem like obesity?
Obesity, declared Dr Arya Sharma, is not a lifestyle choice. Calling for an expansion of the investment of funding and effort into obesity, Dr Sharma, who's a professor and practitioner in Edmonton and the scientific director of the Canadian Obesity Network, wrote in a Globe and Mail commentary that "too many health professionals also do not understand obesity; they offer advice that is useless, expect the impossible from their patients, fail to acknowledge root causes, or ignore the barriers to treatment." [Globe and Mail]

Quebec's third party regroups
The ADQ party, which lost its official opposition status and its longtime leader, Mario Dumont, in last year's election, is in the process of selecting a new leader. The first person to announce his candidacy is the party's experienced MNA and health critic, Eric Caire, who has for years assailed the Liberal government's health ministers Philippe Couillard and Yves Bolduc on their reluctance to expand privatization options in the healthcare sector. [Montreal Gazette] [Montreal Gazette]

Come clean
Montreal family physician Marie-Dominique Beaulieu warned that family secrets are detrimental to one's health. Also: did you know the woman Jack Nicholson believed to be his mother turned out to be his sister, and he learned about it from a newspaper article? Bizarre. [Université de Montréal news (French only)] [UdeM news release]

Backseat doctoring
The Natasha-Richardson's-death blame game continues online, at M.D.O.D. (at fault: socialized healthcare... or -- oops -- maybe not), Pure Pedantry (at fault: Richardson, for declining immediate medical attention... but really at fault: poor patient education about head trauma), and NHS Blog Doctor (at fault: the "wussification" of doctors, by which he means defensive medicine and an over-reliance on technology).

Grand Rounds
The weekly collection of health bloggers' best articles was published at a nursing blog this week. [Code Blog]

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