WOMEN’S

Rugby Sevens

Sarah-Jane Speers, Alexander

Paityn Bourgouin, Dauphin

WINNIPEG — Manitoba has the highest rate of hepatitis C virus in the country and it’s why World Hepatitis Day is an important day for education, an infectious disease and liver expert says.

Dr. Kelly Kaita, who heads the viral hepatitis unit at the Health Sciences Centre, said the province’s hep C virus rate of 42.3 cases per 100,000 means 589 Manitobans are diagnosed with the disease every year.

But Kaita, who wants to use World Hepatitis Day, which is today, to help educate people on how to reduce the spread of the infection, said he thinks the numbers are even worse.

“I believe 589 in Manitoba would be low,” he said. “And with hepatitis C in 0.8 per cent of the population in Canada, that would be 8,000 Manitobans with the disease.”

LUCKY NUMBERS

FRIDAY

LOTTO MAX: 9, 10, 22, 29, 35, 37, 46 BONUS: 38

WESTERN: 5, 6, 19, 26, 40, 41, 45 BONUS: 3

WINNIPEG — A Winnipeg man who was trapped underground in a northern B.C. mine for more than 60 hours expressed relief and gratitude after his rescue late Thursday.

Jesse Chubaty’s relatives in Manitoba said they’re eager to reunite with him.

Chubaty and two co-workers were brought to the surface of a gold and copper mine near Iskut, B.C., about 1,600 kilometres north of Vancouver, Thursday night after becoming trapped Tuesday morning.

“Thank you everyone for reaching out. What a wild week this has been. Glad to be outta there!” Chubaty wrote in a Facebook post about nine hours after the rescue. “To all my mining brothers, stay safe down there and to everyone else as well!”

PRISON ESCAPEE CAPTURED

MONTREAL — A convicted murderer who escaped from a Quebec prison nearly three weeks earlier was recaptured early Friday in Montreal, Correctional Service Canada said.

They said Lory Bill Germa was apprehended by the Montreal police at around 7:45 a.m.

The 69-year-old escaped from the Archambault Institution north of Montreal on July 5.

WINNIPEG — Manitoba optometrists have been refusing to handle urgent cases out of frustration with the provincial government, which hasn’t signed a deal with them in years.

Since March, the optometrists have referred all non-routine eye care cases, as well as patients who had surgery within the past three weeks, to the Misericordia Eye Clinic.

They’ve been directed to do so by the Manitoba Association of Optometrists.

The result is that Manitobans are taking the brunt of the job action because the clinic has become jam-packed with patients, forcing the clinic to scramble and enlist the help of the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority to find more staff.