Louise Ringuette | Université de Montréal (original) (raw)

Papers by Louise Ringuette

Abstracts of the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, Jul 10, 1999

Canada communicable disease report = Releve des maladies transmissibles au Canada, 2003

Journal of clinical microbiology, 1995

A total of 234 strains of Neisseria meningitidis obtained from hospitalized patients living in th... more A total of 234 strains of Neisseria meningitidis obtained from hospitalized patients living in the province of Québec during the period 1991 to 1992 were characterized according to their serogroup, serotype, subtype, electrophoretic type, and antimicrobial susceptibility. All these strains were recovered from sterile body fluids, except for one strain that was isolated postmortem from a cutaneous lesion. For both years, serogroup C was the most prevalent (69.7%), followed by serogroup B (27.4%). Serotype 2a represented 80.3% of serogroup C isolates, and P1.2 was the most common subtype associated with this serotype. Clone ET 15 accounted for 76.5% of serogroup C isolates and 90.0% of serotype 2a strains. Although meningococcal disease occurred mostly in children under the age of 5 (9.7 cases per 100,000 children), with a peak incidence for children under 1 (20.3 cases per 100,000 children), most fatalities occurred among teenagers (12 to 19 years old). The total fatality rate was 11...

Journal of Clinical Microbiology, 1994

The serogroup/serotypes (SGTs) and antimicrobial susceptibilities to 10 antimicrobial agents of 1... more The serogroup/serotypes (SGTs) and antimicrobial susceptibilities to 10 antimicrobial agents of 110 clinical strains of Streptococcus pneumoniae were determined. Strains intermediately resistant or highly resistant to penicillin G (80 of 110) belonged predominantly to SGTs 23 (45.0%), 19 (13.7%), 6 (10.0%), 9 (6.2%), and 14 (3.7%). The MICs of all cephalosporins, tetracycline, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, and chloramphenicol increased along with the MICs of penicillin G. However, erythromycin resistance and clindamycin resistance were observed more frequently among the intermediately penicillin-resistant strains. Multiple resistance was observed for 32 strains, of which 25 were highly resistant to penicillin G and belong to SGT 23F. All strains were susceptible to vancomycin.

L’erosion actuelle de la confiance du public envers les campagnes de vaccination et les decisions... more L’erosion actuelle de la confiance du public envers les campagnes de vaccination et les decisions de politiques publiques qui y sont associees, aggravee par des scandales comme ceux relatifs a la pandemie H1N1 et l’utilisation du Tamiflu™, risque de diminuer de facon significative l’efficacite de ces interventions importantes pour la sante publique. Un manque de confiance de la population envers les acteurs de sante publique peut conduire a une mefiance accrue face aux interventions, pouvant ainsi compromettre l’atteinte des objectifs recherches par une intervention specifique et, consequemment, avoir un impact important sur les benefices attendus pour la population visee par cette intervention. Dans la production des avis d’experts, les membres des comites consultatifs d’experts en immunisation (CCEI) peuvent avoir une influence importante sur la prise de decision publique, notamment, sur la selection par les decideurs de sante publique de vaccins en particulier et la facon dont le...

Journal of Clinical Microbiology, 2001

In the province of Quebec, Canada, from 1996 to 1998, 3,650 invasive Streptococcus pneumoniae inf... more In the province of Quebec, Canada, from 1996 to 1998, 3,650 invasive Streptococcus pneumoniae infections were reported. A total of 1,354 isolates were serotyped and tested for antimicrobial susceptibility. The distribution of serotypes remained stable over the 3 years, with serotypes 14, 6B, 4, 9V, 23F, and 19F accounting for 61% of the isolates. Overall, 90% of isolates were included in the current 23-valent vaccine and 67% were included in the 7-valent conjugate vaccine. We were able to determine that resistance to penicillin and to other antibiotics is increasing.

Ethics, Medicine and Public Health, 2017

Canadian Journal of Bioethics/Revue canadienne de bioéthique, 2021

La pandemie de COVID-19 remet a l’honneur la question ethique de l’allocation des ressources limi... more La pandemie de COVID-19 remet a l’honneur la question ethique de l’allocation des ressources limitees, en termes d’acces a des soins intensifs et a des respirateurs. Se pose la question ethique suivante : sur quels principes ethiques se baser pour effectuer le triage des patients qui auront acces aux ressources quand elles sont insuffisantes pour repondre aux besoins de tous? Pour en debattre, deux references historiques de triage sont d’abord presentees ; l’une s’appuie sur un principe egalitaire de reponse aux besoins individuels, l’autre sur un principe d’utilite sociale. Apres avoir defini les conditions d’equite en tant qu’egalite procedurale et reponse adequate aux besoins, deux types de protocoles sont etudies en mettant l’accent sur les criteres d’equite et d’utilite qu’ils preconisent. Les types de protocoles sont ensuite compares en presentant leurs forces et leurs limites dans la reponse qu’ils apportent aux besoins populationnels et individuels. Notre analyse met en evid...

L'utilisation de renseignements et de documents à caractère personnel à des fins de recherche: qu... more L'utilisation de renseignements et de documents à caractère personnel à des fins de recherche: quand le droit et l'éthique s'entremêlent! Conférence organisée par le Bureau

BMC Medical Ethics

Background As Canadian global health researchers who conducted a qualitative study with adults wi... more Background As Canadian global health researchers who conducted a qualitative study with adults with and without disabilities in Uganda, we obtained ethics approval from four institutional research ethics boards (two in Canada and two in Uganda). In Canada, research ethics boards and researchers follow the research ethics norms of the Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans (TCPS2), and the National Guidelines for Research Involving Humans as Research Participants of Uganda (NGRU) in Uganda. The preparation and implementation of this qualitative research raised specific ethical issues related to research participant privacy and the importance of availability and management of financial resources. Main body Our field experience highlights three main issues for reflection. First, we demonstrate that, in a global health research context, methodological and logistic adjustments were necessary throughout the research implementation process to ensure the...

Canadian Journal of Bioethics

Au Québec, la Loi sur l'accès aux documents des organismes publics et sur la protection des rense... more Au Québec, la Loi sur l'accès aux documents des organismes publics et sur la protection des renseignements personnels offre une exception en matière de transparence à la plupart des institutions publiques où la recherche en santé publique est menée en leur permettant de ne pas divulguer leurs utilisations de données à caractère personnel (souvent collectées sans le consentement des personnes étudiées). Cette exception est éthiquement problématique en raison de préoccupations importantes (ex. : la protection de la vie privée et les inconvénients potentiels des utilisations secondaires de données) et nous soutenons que tous ceux qui mènent des recherches doivent être transparents et responsables du travail qu'ils accomplissent dans l'intérêt public. In Québec, the Act Respecting Access to Documents Held by Public Bodies and the Protection of Personal Information provides an exception to transparency to most public institutions where public health research is conducted by allowing them to not disclose their uses of personal data (often collected without the consent of those being studied). This exceptionalism is ethically problematic due to important concerns (e.g., protection of privacy and potential harms of secondary uses of data) and we argue that all those who conduct research should be transparent and accountable for the work they do in the public interest.

Vaccine

There has been increasing attention to financial conflicts of interest (COI) in public health res... more There has been increasing attention to financial conflicts of interest (COI) in public health research and policy making, with concerns that some decisions are not in the public interest. One notable problematic area is expert advisory committee (EAC). While COI management has focused on disclosure, it could go further and assess experts’ degree of (in)dependence with commercial interests. We analyzed COI disclosures of members of Québec’s immunization EAC (in Canada) using (In)DepScale, a tool we developed for assessing experts’ level of (in)dependence. We found great variability of independence with industry and that companies with the highest vaccine sales were predominantly associated with disclosed COIs. We argue that EACs can use the (In)DepScale to better assess and disclose the COIs that affect their experts. Going forward our scale could help manage risk and select members who are less conflicted to foster a culture of transparency and trust in advisors and policy-makers.

International Journal of Ethics Education, 2017

Over the last decade there has been a noticeable increase in attention, on the part of public hea... more Over the last decade there has been a noticeable increase in attention, on the part of public health scholars and professionals, to the important ethical challenges that arise in the context of public health policy, practice and research. This has arguably been a driver for the development of public health ethics (PHE) as both a specialized field of study in bioethics and a subject for professional education. But how is PHE taught in public health programs and schools? Are current educational approaches sufficient to provide future professionals with the necessary tools to address the diverse ethical challenges they will encoun-ter? In this article, we examine the international public health and bioethics literatures regarding PHE education in public health programs and schools. Specifically, we 1) summarize the results from studies that describe PHE education in the United States, Europe, Canada and in some developing countries , 2) explore current attitudes and educational approaches toward ethics curricula in public health, and 3) identify and discuss reported barriers to PHE education. We conclude with some general recommendations and a research agenda to guide future work on implementing PHE into different public health programs.

BioéthiqueOnline

Au Québec, au Canada et ailleurs dans le monde, des comités consultatifs d’experts conseillent et... more Au Québec, au Canada et ailleurs dans le monde, des comités consultatifs d’experts conseillent et orientent les décideurs gouvernementaux dans le choix de nouveaux médicaments, de vaccins à utiliser ou encore d’interventions à mettre en place. Parallèlement, ces experts bénéficient d’un appui de plus en plus important d’entreprises privées pour réaliser leurs recherches ou en diffuser les résultats. Cette situation les met à risque de conflits d’intérêts et peut, éventuellement, miner la confiance de la population envers la prise de décision publique. Cette étude de cas suscite des réflexions pertinentes quant à ce qui constitue une gestion saine et optimale des situations de conflits d’intérêts par les membres experts et les organisations dans lesquelles ils ont un rôle-conseil.