The Health News Australia July 29 2017

Overview

• Conducted by the University of New South Wales’ Kirby Institute, the study is said to be the largest of its kind, following more than three hundred fifty homosexual couples from Australia, Brazil and Thailand over four years. It found HIV-positive men who were on daily anti-retroviral treatment that made the virus undetectable did not transmit HIV to their partners. During the course of the study, participating couples reported almost seventeen thousand acts of anal intercourse without a condom, none of which resulted in HIV transmission.
• Australian babies are prescribed antibiotics at some of the highest rates in the world, risking possible long-term side-effects and speeding up antibiotic resistance in the community, which has been described by the World Health Organisation as a “global health emergency”.
• The Federal Parliamentary is examining whether E-cigarettes and vapour devices  should be legalised in Australia. Analysed data from more than 160,000 people and found, of those who had quit, nearly fifty percent had tried e-cigarettes. The researchers said the results showed e-cigarette users were more likely than non-users to succeed in quitting.

News on Health Professional Radio. Today is the 29th of July 2017. Read by Tabetha Moreto. Health New

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-25/hiv-positive-men-taking-daily-medication-will-not-pass-virus-on/8742154

As an HIV-positive man, thirty two-year-old Brent is familiar with the stigma surrounding the perceived risks of transmission with sexual partners who do not have the virus. He has been HIV positive for seven years and took part in a significant Australian-led study analysing the transmission risk among homosexual couples with differing HIV status.

In what has been described as “life-changing news” for gay male couples where one partner is HIV positive, the study found the virus was not transmitted to their partners, if they took daily anti-viral medication that made the viral load undetectable. Brent, who asked for his last name to be withheld, said he was already comfortable having sex without a condom because an earlier smaller study had shown similar results, and he was strict about taking his medication every day.

“For many years … people with HIV have felt stigma in different ways and have been viewed by doctors or other community members as potential passers-on of something which is quite serious,” he told the ABC. “This changes that and as a HIV-positive person anyway, it takes away that fear and that stigma around passing it on and everything that has been attached to that.”

Conducted by the University of New South Wales’ Kirby Institute, the study is said to be the largest of its kind, following more than three hundred fifty homosexual couples from Australia, Brazil and Thailand over four years. It found HIV-positive men who were on daily anti-retroviral treatment that made the virus undetectable did not transmit HIV to their partners. During the course of the study, participating couples reported almost seventeen thousand acts of anal intercourse without a condom, none of which resulted in HIV transmission.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/jul/28/australian-babies-given-antibiotics-at-some-of-the-highest-rates-in-the-world

Australian babies are prescribed antibiotics at some of the highest rates in the world, risking possible long-term side-effects and speeding up antibiotic resistance in the community, which has been described by the World Health Organisation as a “global health emergency”.

In the first study of its kind, researchers tracked antibiotic use in six hundred sixty children under the age of one, both prescribed by GPs, and administered in hospitals. Half of the babies tracked were given antibiotics in the first year of life, many for conditions the researchers said did not need antibiotics.

That rate puts Australia near the very top among high-income countries where data is available. Of those comparable countries, only Italy had a higher rate, and Australia’s rate was almost five hundred percent the rate seen in Switzerland and one hundred fifty percent the UK rate.

Of the eight similar countries with data available, only Italy had a higher rate than Australia, with an average of one point three prescriptions per baby, according to the work published today in the Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health by researchers at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and Deakin University. “It was surprising that so many children got antibiotics,” said David Burgner from Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, who led the research.

The World Health Organisation has labelled antimicrobial resistance a “global health emergency”. Experts have warned that as the problem increases, lifesaving treatments such as chemotherapy and organ transplants, as well as routine operations such as caesareans and hip replacements will be potentially fatal. But there were also emerging clues suggesting antibiotics could affect the long-term health of the children who receive them too.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-27/to-quit-smoking-i-had-to-become-a-criminal/8746676

Alison Paul was addicted to smoking for thirty years and made countless attempts to quit. It wasn’t until she started vaping in two thousand and fourteen that she found success. “I would smoke until I couldn’t breathe and I would smoke and cough, it felt like my ribs were going to break,” she said.”I felt like I had no way out of that circle. Then I started vaping a few days before my birthday three years ago and I haven’t had a cigarette since.”

E-cigarettes and vapour devices heat a liquid nicotine juice into an aerosol, which is then inhaled. Using the nicotine-based products in Australia is illegal because it is classed as a poison by the Therapeutic Goods Administration. …

A study published recently in The British Medical Journal has strengthened claims the devices are a useful tool to help smokers quit. The University of California study looked at whether the increase in the use of e-cigarettes in the USA was associated with a change in smoking cessation rates. It analysed data from more than one hundred sixty thousand people and found, of those who had quit, nearly fifty percent had tried e-cigarettes. The researchers said the results showed e-cigarette users were more likely than non-users to succeed in quitting.

The study comes as a federal Parliamentary inquiry is examining whether the devices should be legalised in Australia. Miss Paul was one of more than a hundred people who have written submissions, pleading with the Government to change the laws.

But Professor Simon Chapman from the University of Sydney warned potential dangers of the devices had not been fully investigated. He said the product should be fully regulated before it is made available in Australia. …