May 17th, The Government of Canada announced the details of the new Public
Health Agency of Canada and a network of specialized centres across the
country concerned with public health.

The Public Health Agency of Canada is described as having ' two pillars' -
in Ottawa, public security, emergency preparedness & planned, plus
coordinate efforts to reduce chronic diseases & injuries.
in Winnpeg, infectious disease functions, epidemiology, and will have a
critical function, in the event of an infectious disease outbreak

Dr. Frank Plummer will be Acting Chief Public Health Officer, while
continuing as lead of the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg. Monique
Begin and Perry Kendall, among others, are on search committee for permanent
Chief PH Officer.

The federal government  also announced the creation of six National
Collaborating Centres for Public Health. These centres will be established
in various parts of the country, each having a very specific public health
focus:
*       Atlantic Canada - Determinants of Health: to study how  factors such
as physical and cultural isolation, income/socio-economic status,
employment, immigration status, mental illness, and risk behaviours such as
smoking and lack of physical activity affect health
*       Quebec - Public Policy and Risk Assessment: to study the impact of
public policy on Canadians' health and well-being .
*       Ontario - Infrastructure, Info-Structure and New Tools Development:
to study how public health information can best be gathered and utilized to
minimize health risks. This centre will be linked (headed) by the
about-to-be-announced Ontario Public Health Agency. the centre will also
investigate how public health information can help to improve health human
resource training and planning, as well as work on citizen engagement,
health promotion and social marketing.
*       Prairies - Infectious Diseases: to study the present and future
risks of emerging and re-emerging diseases
*       British Columbia - Environmental Health: to study the effects of the
environment on human health
A National Collaborating Centre for Aboriginal Health is being established
to study the health factors affecting the health status of Aboriginal
Canadians in urban, rural and remote communities. Partners in the
establishment of this centre will include the British Columbia government;
Aboriginal organizations and communities; academic institutions such as the
Indigenous Peoples Health Research Centre (a collaboration between First
Nations University of Canada and the universities of Regina and
Saskatchewan) and the Northern Ontario Medical School; and other provinces
and territories.


For the  news release see
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/english/pha/releases/2004_26.html

For Backgrounders:
    A Public Health System for the 21st Century (35600)
    National Collaborating Centres for Public Health (35610)
    A Chief Public Health Officer of Canada (35620)
    Frequently Asked questions (35630)
- copies of these backgrounders (code 35600#, 35610#, 35620#, 35630#) are
available from Canada Newswire's information-on-demand service. All
information is retrievable to users with a touch-tone phone and fax machine,
24 hours a day, 7 days a week. To retrieve, dial 1-800-238-7718 and follow
the instructions.

To unsubscribe send one line: unsubscribe click4hp to: [log in to unmask] . To view archives or modify subscription see: http://listserv.yorku.ca/archives/click4hp.html