News Articles
NSW reports century-first diphtheria case
Date of Posting: 03-07-2022
A toddler is in intensive care after contracting the first case of diphtheria of the throat in NSW in a century. Diphtheria is a contagious and potentially deadly bacterial infection. It affects the throat and tonsils in its most severe form, resu Read More...
High-impact workouts could stem dementia
Date of Posting: 03-07-2022
Australian scientists are gathering evidence that the more hot and sweaty you get when you exercise, the better your chances of staving off dementia. It has long been established that physical exercise goes a long way towards improving brain blood Read More...
Eating disorder register to ease recovery
Date of Posting: 03-07-2022
Eating disorder recovery advocates are hopeful an initiative to offer a suite of treatment options in a single register will boost support, particularly in regional areas. A national directory of eating disorder clinicians called connect*ed has be Read More...
Monkeypox symptoms different now
Date of Posting: 02-07-2022
Patients with monkeypox in the UK have noticeably different symptoms from those seen in previous outbreaks, according to researchers in London, raising concerns cases are being missed. Patients report less fever and tiredness and more skin lesions Read More...
US wants COVID vaccines for sub-variants
Date of Posting: 02-07-2022
The US Food and Drug Administration has recommended COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers change the design of their booster shots to combat coronavirus sub-variants. If authorised, the changes would mark the first major retooling of COVID vaccines, but Read More...
DIY cervical cancer test a 'game changer'
Date of Posting: 02-07-2022
A cervical cancer testing overhaul is coming to Australia that will allow more women to privately administer their own less invasive procedure. From Friday women aged 25 to 74 will be able to take a self-administered test in private at a GP clinic Read More...
Abortion bans blocked in Florida, Kentucky
Date of Posting: 01-07-2022
Judges in Florida and Kentucky have moved to block those states from enforcing bans or restrictions on abortion after the US Supreme Court last week overturned the 1973 Roe v Wade ruling that had established a nationwide right to the procedure. In Read More...
TGA paves way for under-fives vaccine
Date of Posting: 01-07-2022
Australia is a step closer to having COVID-19 vaccinations for children aged six months to five years, with Pfizer approved to submit an application with the medical regulator. The Therapeutic Goods Administration has granted a provisional determi Read More...
Monkeypox cases reported in children
Date of Posting: 01-07-2022
The World Health Organisation says "sustained transmission" of monkeypox worldwide could result in the virus beginning to move into high-risk groups like pregnant women, immunocompromised people and children. The WHO said on Wednesday it Read More...
Amazon curbs emergency contraceptives sale
Date of Posting: 30-06-2022
Amazon.com Inc has placed a temporary purchase limit of three units per week on emergency contraceptive pills, the company says. The move comes days after the US Supreme Court overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v Wade ruling that recognised women Read More...
Australians biggest ice users, data shows
Date of Posting: 30-06-2022
Australians use more ice than people in parts of Europe and Asia, with the drug's highly addictive quality driving demand and consumption even during pandemic lockdowns, new data shows. The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission's was Read More...
Mental support for deployed ADF can vary
Date of Posting: 30-06-2022
It is unclear whether mental health support and services are adequately supplied to serving ADF personnel on deployment, a royal commission has been told. On the penultimate day of Townsville's block of hearings at the royal commission into de Read More...
Tas hospital's culture ignored suspicions
Date of Posting: 29-06-2022
A health staffer who worked alongside a male pedophile nurse at a Tasmanian hospital believes there was a culture among senior management of not talking about "challenging issues". An inquiry examining state government responses to child Read More...
SA rules out extending free flu jabs
Date of Posting: 29-06-2022
Free flu vaccines will not be extended beyond June in South Australia, despite calls for the jabs to be made available to everyone until the end of winter. The free vaccines were introduced at the beginning of the month in a bid to increase the nu Read More...
Call to harmonise Australian abortion laws
Date of Posting: 29-06-2022
Australia's "postcode lottery" of reproductive health access is being spotlighted in the wake of the US Supreme Court overturning federal abortion rights. The court's decision to overturn the Roe v Wade precedent from half a cent Read More...
Long-term health issues for 8m Aussies
Date of Posting: 28-06-2022
More than eight million Australians are living with long-term health conditions, two million of whom suffer mental health, arthritis or asthma. Women are more likely to report having a long-term health condition, with 34 per cent suffering at leas Read More...
Virus cases on the rise, 40 NSW deaths
Date of Posting: 28-06-2022
COVID-19 cases are again on the rise across Australia, with the latest Omicron sub-variant BA.4/BA.5 on track to become the major strain. Authorities say BA.4/BA.5 represented more than 30 per cent of specimens in NSW in the week ending June 18, u Read More...
SA to shut some vaccine clinics
Date of Posting: 28-06-2022
South Australia will close some of its mass COVID-19 vaccination clinics, allowing staff to return to the state's struggling public hospitals. Among those clinics to close is Adelaide's largest at the Wayville Showgrounds.[subscribe] At Read More...
'Vigilant' message from US abortion ruling
Date of Posting: 27-06-2022
The US Supreme Court's overturning of a landmark abortion decision is a reminder that people need to be vigilant in protecting their freedoms, Australia's minister for women says. The ruling against the 50-year-old Roe v Wade decision, whi Read More...
COVID-19 and Australia's unlearnt lessons
Date of Posting: 27-06-2022
On January 19, 1900 Dr Sinclair Gillies, an honorary physician at Sydney's Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, was asked to identify strange flu-like symptoms in a 33-year-old delivery driver. Arthur Paine's work had regularly brought him into c Read More...
Stigma a hurdle to treatment for addiction
Date of Posting: 27-06-2022
Taking the stigma out of addiction and post-traumatic stress disorder would have saved Baden Hicks two decades of pain and misery. The 36-year-old Melburnian, now a peer support worker at the Turning Point research and treatment centre, grappled w Read More...
Warning as Omicron sub-variant cases surge
Date of Posting: 26-06-2022
An Omicron sub-variant of COVID-19 that can evade vaccine immunity is on the rise in Victoria, with authorities warning it is on track to be the state's major strain in line with virus spread in NSW and Queensland. Traces of BA.4/BA.5 in Victo Read More...
Monkeypox not yet a health emergency
Date of Posting: 26-06-2022
Monkeypox is not yet a global health emergency, the World Health Organisation has ruled, although director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says he is deeply concerned about the outbreak. There have been more than 3200 confirmed cases of monkeyp Read More...
App replaces sleeping pills for insomniacs
Date of Posting: 26-06-2022
Insomnia patients should ditch the drugs and sign up to an Australian-designed app to help them improve their sleep patterns. That's according to Britain's National Health Service (NHS), which has recommended Sleepio as a safe and effectiv Read More...
Defiance at Mississippi abortion clinic
Date of Posting: 25-06-2022
The decision that sealed the Pink House's fate dropped shortly after 9am local time. "They ruled against Roe. Abortion is now illegal", a protester yelled outside Mississippi's only abortion clinic on Friday as word trickled out Read More...
Flu and COVID 'double whammy' on hospitals
Date of Posting: 25-06-2022
Rising flu and COVID-19 cases are placing the nation's hospitals under significant strain, according to the chief medical officer. Paul Kelly said winter had brought significant challenges for the health system, as experts warn new COVID-19 va Read More...
Changes to Vic mental health complaints
Date of Posting: 25-06-2022
Victoria's mental health complaints system will undergo changes after a report criticising incidents of seclusion and use of restraint. Complaints processes will be streamlined by the state's mental health complaints commissioner, a week a Read More...
COVID vax 'saved 20m lives in first year'
Date of Posting: 24-06-2022
Nearly 20 million lives were saved by COVID-19 vaccines during their first year, but even more deaths could have been prevented if international targets for the shots had been reached, researchers have reported. On December 8, 2020, a retired shop Read More...
US bans sales of Juul e-cigarettes
Date of Posting: 24-06-2022
Sales of Juul e-cigarettes have been blocked by the US Food and Drug Administration in a major blow to the once high-flying firm whose products have been tied to a surge in teenage vaping. The agency said the applications "lacked sufficient e Read More...
WHO eyes decision on monkeypox 'emergency'
Date of Posting: 24-06-2022
The World Health Organisation is set to decide whether to declare monkeypox a global health emergency, stirring criticism from leading African scientists who say it has been a crisis in their region for years. The deliberations and scrutiny of the Read More...
Asia, Middle East, Europe virus cases rise
Date of Posting: 23-06-2022
The number of new coronavirus cases has risen in Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Europe last week while the number of deaths globally dropped by 16 per cent, according to the World Health Organisation's latest weekly pandemic report. The W Read More...
Spain denies first cholera case since 1979
Date of Posting: 23-06-2022
Spain's health ministry has denied a report by regional counterparts that a case of locally acquired cholera had been detected for the first time in four decades, saying the case was in fact vibrio gastroenteritis. A female patient was hospita Read More...
Polio detected in London sewage
Date of Posting: 23-06-2022
Polio has been detected in sewage samples in the UK capital London - the first sign since the 1980s that the virus could be spreading in the country - but no cases have been found, authorities say. The risk of infection from the disease, which cau Read More...
Qld wants more medical student funding
Date of Posting: 22-06-2022
Queensland's health minister has called for more medical student placements to be funded by the Commonwealth to help boost the health workforce. The state government promised for another 2509 hospital beds and 290 mental health beds by 2028 in Read More...
New call to thank SA health workers
Date of Posting: 22-06-2022
The Greens have renewed calls for South Australian health workers to get a bonus payment as the latest modelling points to a spike in virus infections in coming weeks. The arrival of the BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron variants is likely to result in a sign Read More...
S.Korea reports first two monkeypox cases
Date of Posting: 22-06-2022
South Korea has reported its first two suspected cases of monkeypox virus infections in the country, Yonhap News Agency reports citing health authorities. One of the people, who reportedly showed potential symptoms of the infectious disease while Read More...
Multiple solutions needed to address rural nursing shortages in NSW
Date of Posting: 21-06-2022
The Australian College of Nursing (ACN) welcomes the regional health workforce incentive announced this week by the New South Wales Government but has warned that a multi-pronged solution is required to ensure all Australians have access to quality n Read More...
New specialist cancer nursing education program becomes available
Date of Posting: 21-06-2022
The Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre has launched its Cancer Nursing Discovery Program, supporting registered nurses to become specialised cancer nurses. Candidates will join a passionate team at the world-class teaching hospital, supported by leadin Read More...
Calls for timely and ongoing access to physiotherapy for people living with dementia
Date of Posting: 21-06-2022
In a joint statement Physiotherapy and Dementia, peak health bodies have united to draw attention to the critical importance of maintaining physical health, and its impact on improving mental health and wellbeing of people living with dementia. De Read More...
Research finds texting program improves lifestyle risk factors for heart attack survivors
Date of Posting: 21-06-2022
A text messaging program study, TEXTMEDS, has successfully informed and supported heart attack survivors on how to prevent a second heart attack. The randomised controlled study led by Westmead Hospital cardiologist and academic director and profe Read More...
