Health Matters: Weight-loss drug Wegovy available in Canada starting May 6

I’m Joe Scarpelli with your top health headlines right now. The makers of Ozempic say their weight loss drug wegovie will be available to Canadians as of Monday. Novo Nordisk’s weekly injection is approved for weight loss among patients diagnosed with obesity. Wigofi can also be prescribed to patients with overweight and at least one related medical condition like high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes or obstructive sleep apnea. Ogilvy contains the same medications as the diabetes drug Ozempic, but at a higher dose. Scientists say a new form of empox detected in a mining town in Congo might more easily spread among people. The researchers say the lesions reported by most patients are milder, making the disease trickier to diagnose. All righty Congo is seeing its biggest emplox outbreak, with more than 4500 suspected infections and nearly 300 deaths. Those numbers are roughly tripled from the same period last year, according to the World Health Organization. Ontario’s environment ministry has ordered a petrochemical facility in Sarnia to suspend production because of high benzene emissions first flagged by a nearby First Nation. I’m Jenang, First Nation recently said after its citizens fell, I’ll its monitor found high emissions of the cancer causing substance coming from iniose sterilution. The company said in a statement Tuesday that its own monitors didn’t detect any emissions outside the prescribed limit. However, the ministry says recent readings are still higher than acceptable, despite several previous orders requiring the company to reduce benzene emissions. Ontario’s doctors say a new artificial intelligence pilot program is a game changer. After 29 years on the job, Doctor Rosemary Law says she was on the verge of quitting because of the daily avalanche of patient paperwork. She’s among a small group of doctors trying out a technology called AI Scribe. With a patient’s consent, it can take notes during an exam, substantially cutting down the estimated 19 hours a week doctor spend on administrative tasks. Anecdotally, patients really appreciate it. Right now, clinicians are seeing benefits, but we’re doing it as an initial study to see how we can roll it, Ontario, MD, which runs AI Scribe, says. The tech providers have strict privacy parameters, and those are the top health stories right now. For more, you can head to globalnews.ca. I’m Joe Scarpelli.