News Articles
Virus cases on first WA cruise liner to WA
Date of Posting: 26-10-2022
Passengers and crew on the first major cruise liner to visit Western Australia since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic have tested positive for the virus. Health authorities and the ship's operators, Carnival Australia, have not revealed how Read More...
Progress on world-first gonorrhoea vaccine
Date of Posting: 26-10-2022
Queensland researchers are hoping to develop a world-first gonorrhoea vaccine with the antibiotic resistant bacteria affecting more than 100 million people every year. Left untreated, the sexually transmitted infection can lead to infertility in w Read More...
More palliative care nurses for rural SA
Date of Posting: 25-10-2022
The South Australian government will recruit 10 more specialist palliative care nurses to bolster end-of-life services in regional communities. The government will base the nurses in six regional areas to give more South Australians living in rura Read More...
Uganda confirms nine more Ebola cases
Date of Posting: 25-10-2022
Uganda has reported nine more Ebola cases in the capital Kampala, bringing the total number of known infections to 14 in the last two days, the health minister says. The outbreak began in September in a rural part of central Uganda. It spread earl Read More...
Call for support for doctors being probed
Date of Posting: 24-10-2022
Health professionals being investigated should have mental health support and the right to legal representation, a new advocate says. Queensland became the first state to pass new laws giving federal watchdogs more power over registered health pra Read More...
Funds approved for SA assisted dying laws
Date of Posting: 24-10-2022
Specialist pharmacists and care navigators are being recruited with the South Australian government allocating $18 million over five years to implement new assisted dying laws. The new provisions come into force on January 31 after being passed by Read More...
ADHD diagnosis on the rise for Aust women
Date of Posting: 23-10-2022
Mia Freeman, Em Rusciano and Abbie Chatfield are among a growing list of high profile women revealing ADHD diagnoses. They're but a few of the voices in the apparent increase in attention deficit hyperactivity disorders among women that Austra Read More...
Live well, avoid nursing care, study shows
Date of Posting: 23-10-2022
Every aspect of life can influence one's state of wellness, so the saying goes. However, number crunchers keen to determine to what extent, have come away with the rather stark claim that Australia's unhealthiest older citizens can expect Read More...
New cancer medicines added to the PBS
Date of Posting: 23-10-2022
Cancer medications and a treatment for a rare genetic disease have been added to Australia's Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. The newly-listed drugs are used for patients with skin cancer, lung cancer and X-linked hypophosphatemia or XLH, a dis Read More...
Some Aussies admit still not handwashing
Date of Posting: 22-10-2022
Despite all the lessons of a global pandemic, almost one in five Australians admit they don't always wash their hands after visiting the toilet. Almost half concede that they sometimes also forget to lather up before handling food.[subscribe] Read More...
High Darwin injury toll from e-scooters
AAP | Date of Posting: 22-10-2022
Injuries from electric scooter accidents in Darwin cost the medical system more than $350,000 over the past eight months, with booze a significant contributing factor, a study has found. The study revealed many patients experienced head and limb i Read More...
Indonesia bans liquid medicines
Date of Posting: 22-10-2022
Indonesia has temporarily banned all liquid medicines following the deaths of about 100 children from acute kidney damage, the country's health minister says. At least 206 cases of acute kidney damage have been reported in 20 provinces since J Read More...
The new SHPA Don't Rush to Crush Handbook essential for all aged care settings
Last Updated: 21-10-2022
As Australia’s population ages and more people take more medicines, Don’t Rush to Crush is the indispensable frontline resource to manage risk and ensure quality care for people with enteral feeding tubes or swallowing difficulties, in al Read More...
Digital health can ease burden on system
Date of Posting: 20-10-2022
Telephone doctor consultations came to the fore during lockdowns and now the digital health care industry is being touted as a way to ease the burden on a system struggling with a chronic shortage of GPs. A new report has found the online model of Read More...
Young women lead Victorian vaping jump
Date of Posting: 20-10-2022
The number of Victorians who vape has almost doubled since 2018 and young women are leading the take-up. A Cancer Council Victoria survey estimated more than 308,000 Victorians vaped in 2022, compared to just under 155,000 in 2018-2019.[subscribe] Read More...
Cholera vaccine dose must be halved
Date of Posting: 20-10-2022
The World Health Organization and its partners are recommending that countries temporarily switch to using a single dose of the cholera vaccine instead of two due to a supply shortage, as outbreaks of the water-borne disease surge globally. In a s Read More...
Kidney bus unlocks travel for patients
Date of Posting: 19-10-2022
Mailah Hosteng was once an avid world traveller, but that all changed after suffering kidney failure. She now needs kidney dialysis three times a week and the logistics have made travelling all but impossible.[subscribe] "Before I got sick Read More...
Connectivity a lifeline for bush patients
Date of Posting: 19-10-2022
When Marco Giuseppin was working as a doctor in rural Queensland, he got a call about a motorbike accident at an outback station. A lack of mobile reception meant Dr Giuseppin had to offer medical advice over a landline phone call, which was then Read More...
Board to review SA assisted dying laws
Date of Posting: 19-10-2022
An eight-member review board has been named to take charge of South Australia's assisted dying laws which come into force next year. The board includes senior clinicians, legal professionals, ethical and governance experts and those with first Read More...
New Zealand shaking up COVID-19 laws
Date of Posting: 18-10-2022
New Zealand is dismantling the legislative framework for most of its COVID-19 restrictions, but keeping its seven-day isolation and limited mask-wearing provisions as cases start to uptick again. In a milestone in New Zealand's fight against t Read More...
Medicare rorting taken seriously
Date of Posting: 18-10-2022
Health Minister Mark Butler vows claims of billions of dollars being rorted each year from the Medicare system are being taken seriously. Mr Butler said an investigation would be carried out following reports from the ABC and Nine newspapers that Read More...
NSW nurses rally over safety issues
Date of Posting: 18-10-2022
Concerns over staffing and patient safety will be front of mind as nurses and midwives rally outside a western Sydney hospital. The NSW Nurses and Midwives Association says around 35 nurses and midwives have quit Blacktown Hospital's emergency Read More...
Medicare rort claims 'atrocious'
Date of Posting: 17-10-2022
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has labelled reports the Medicare system is being rorted by up to $8 billion a year as atrocious. The comments come after a joint ABC and Nine newspapers investigation revealed some practitioners were ripping off the system Read More...
Uganda locks down to stem Ebola spread
Date of Posting: 16-10-2022
Ugandan authorities have imposed a travel lockdown on two Ebola-hit districts as part of efforts to stop the spread of the contagious disease. The measures announced on Saturday by President Yoweri Museveni mean residents of the central Ugandan di Read More...
Australia's 1000 dark days of COVID-19
Date of Posting: 16-10-2022
When COVID-19 hit Australia, the country's top health bureaucrats were bracing for something big - but even they were yet to grasp the enormity of the looming crisis. It was January 25, 2020 - the day before Australia Day - when authorities co Read More...
Australia ends mandatory COVID isolation
Date of Posting: 15-10-2022
Australians who test positive to COVID-19 will no longer have to isolate, with mandatory stay-at-home orders officially scrapped. The changes took effect on Friday.[subscribe] NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet, who led the campaign to ditch isolati Read More...
One-third of IVF due to infertile men
Date of Posting: 15-10-2022
Male infertility was involved in one in every three rounds of IVF in 2020, with most of those men having no idea what affected their potency. Some 20 per cent of IVF rounds in 2020 were due to an infertile man, with another 11.2 per cent due to bo Read More...
SA to boost vaccines for mosquito virus
Date of Posting: 15-10-2022
South Australia will increase access to a vaccine for the Japanese encephalitis virus amid the growing risk of the mosquito-borne disease over summer. The expanded vaccine rollout will target people who live or work in a postcode within five kilom Read More...
Gait and grip early signs of dementia: study reveals
Date of Posting: 14-10-2022
A slowed gait combined with a weakened grip could be early indicators of dementia before the onset of noticeable symptoms, according to Monash University researchers. [subscribe] The study, Combination of gait speed and grip strength to predict c Read More...
New approach to suicide prevention in NSW
Date of Posting: 13-10-2022
The NSW government is renewing its approach to preventing suicide, saying lessons learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic present an opportunity to pivot. The focus will be on people and communities, with care targeting prevention, early intervention an Read More...
Haiti cholera outbreak kills 18
Date of Posting: 13-10-2022
Civil unrest is making it harder to contain a new outbreak of cholera in Haiti just as other diseases threaten to ignite new health crises, the Pan American Health Organisation says. The Caribbean country had confirmed 18 deaths from cholera as of Read More...
Long COVID on the rise, inquiry told
Date of Posting: 13-10-2022
Long COVID clinics across the country are being inundated with requests for assessments from patients struggling with ongoing symptoms, an inquiry has heard. Doctors told the federal parliamentary inquiry into Long COVID and Repeated COVID-19 Infe Read More...
Poor nutrition is making us sick: education can drive change
Last Updated: 12-10-2022
Poor nutrition is making our nation sick. The current typical Western diet is nutrient poor and energy dense, and is one of the major causes of obesity and non-communicable diseases (NCDs). As much as 88% of health loss in Australia and New Zealand c Read More...
Australia facing 'decade-long' GP shortage
Date of Posting: 12-10-2022
Doctors and medical students are calling for urgent funding and Medicare changes to prevent a shortage of 11,000 general practitioners over the next decade. Doctor shortages are plaguing rural communities and increasing gap fees - the difference b Read More...
Australia must tackle youth obesity crisis
Date of Posting: 12-10-2022
Screen-slave adolescents are a forgotten demographic when it comes to obesity, with better prevention strategies sorely needed. This is the key finding from a new research paper, which says adolescent obesity goes largely untreated despite its hug Read More...
NSW cancer clinics get patients' approval
Date of Posting: 12-10-2022
Cancer patients treated in NSW outpatient clinics have reported an overwhelmingly positive experience, but improvements could be made for those who speak English as a second language. Outpatient clinics diagnose cancer and provide treatment includ Read More...
NT nurses felt targeted before teen shot
Last Updated: 11-10-2022
Health workers who fled a remote Northern Territory community over safety fears hours before police shot and killed an Indigenous teenager believed they were being targeted by criminals, an inquest has been told. Kumanjayi Walker, 19, died after C Read More...
Lockdowns 'punished' west Sydney
Date of Posting: 11-10-2022
Western Sydney residents endured an unequal lockdown imposed by the NSW government during the COVID-19 Delta outbreak, a report has found. People from Sydney's most multicultural suburbs felt targeted and racially discriminated against, compar Read More...
Teen pregnancy rates rising in rural NSW
Date of Posting: 11-10-2022
There is a stark disparity between the rate of teenage pregnancy in NSW rural areas compared to girls who grow up in the city. While teenage birth rates have halved in NSW since 2011, in more than a dozen rural and remote parts of the state, the n Read More...
Living costs more stressful than pandemic
Date of Posting: 10-10-2022
Cost of living pressures have overtaken the pandemic as the greatest source of worry for Australians, according to a survey released on World Mental Health Day. Mental health charity Beyond Blue surveyed 1500 people and found inflation, rising int Read More...
