- Like with any major health issue in Canada, such as the West Nile
virus, Mad Cow disease, Walkerton and safe drinking water and Norwalk
for example, Health Canada was involved in providing information to
Canadians about SARS.
- How do you think that Health Canada was providing information
to Canadians about SARS? [Through TV? Newspapers? the Internet?]
- What do you think is the best way for Health Canada to provide
information about SARS to Canadians?
- You might remember that the situation with SARS evolved very rapidly
and the information regarding symptoms and precautionary measures changed
often, sometimes daily. For that reason Health Canada provided information
on SARS only through the Internet because they could update the website
as often as they needed.
- What do you think of this?
- Why do you think that Health Canada chose to use the Internet
for providing information on SARS? What are the benefits of using
the Internet in this circumstance?
- And what are the disadvantages?
- As we have discussed, it is possible to visit the Health Canada website
to get the latest information on health issues such as SARS or Mad Cow
disease. However, it is possible to do many more things related to health
online. For example, there are resources that help people quit smoking,
or eat a more healthy diet. More recently, it has been possible for
people to send email to their doctors and for doctors to give patients
addresses for websites where they could look up information on specific
conditions. There are also online support groups for people or their
family members living with conditions such as cancer or diabetes to
share their experiences and help each other. It is now also possible
for doctors at different hospitals and clinics to be connected by Internet.
For example, a specialist living in Toronto could communicate over the
Internet to a nurse in Nunavut to help the nurse treat a patient.
- What do you think of accessing health information this way?
- What are the benefits? What are the disadvantages?
- Do you feel like you are missing out because you do not have
access to this type of health resources?
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