The Health News Australia April 16 2018

• University of Queensland researchers have developed a vaccine delivery technology that enables treatment to be tailored precisely for different cancers. UQ’s Professor Ranjeny Thomas said the technology had the potential to improve the precision of cancer immunotherapy, leading to better cancer outcomes and reduce harmful side-effects. The solution, tailored NanoEmulsion technology, results from a new approach to cancer vaccination.
• One in every 5 Australian children has gone hungry in the past 12 months according to a new report, with some even resorting to chewing paper to try to feel full. The survey of  1,000 parents commissioned by Foodbank show 22% of Australian children under the age of 15 live in a household that has run out of food at some stage over the past year. One in 5 kids affected go to school without eating breakfast at least once a week, while one in ten go a whole day at least once a week without eating anything at all.
• Thousands of private health insurance customers have seen the cost of their premiums soar well above the expected 3.95% average increase, with figures showing more than a dozen policies have jumped by double-digit figures. A new analysis of the annual health insurance premium increases – which came in on April 1– reveals that in one case a private provider increased costs by 45%.

News on Health Professional Radio. Today is the 16th of April 2018. Read by Tabetha Moreto.

http://health.uq.edu.au/article/2018/04/technology-holds-personalised-cancer-vaccine-breakthrough

University of Queensland researchers have developed a vaccine delivery technology that enables treatment to be tailored precisely for different cancers. UQ’s Professor Ranjeny Thomas said the technology had the potential to improve the precision of cancer immunotherapy, leading to better cancer outcomes and reduce harmful side-effects.

Professor Thomas said: “Flexible cancer vaccines are a long-sought treatment strategy in cancer immunotherapy.  Cancer vaccines represent a precision cancer treatment strategy which stimulates the immune system to attack cancer cells without affecting other cells in the body.”
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The solution, tailored NanoEmulsion technology, results from a new approach to cancer vaccination. Professor Thomas added:  “NanoEmulsions are tiny carrier packages that encapsulate proteins made only by cancer cells. They are designed to target specific immune cells, which educate the immune system about cancer proteins.” UQ researcher Professor Riccardo Dolcetti said the process accelerated a precise immune attack on cancer cells.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-04-15/report-shows-one-in-five-children-suffer-from-food-insecurity/9653532

One in every five Australian children has gone hungry in the past twelve months according to a new report, with some even resorting to chewing paper to try to feel full. The survey of  one thousand parents commissioned by Foodbank shows twenty two percent of Australian children under the age of fifteen live in a household that has run out of food at some stage over the past year. One in five kids affected go to school without eating breakfast at least once a week, while one in ten go a whole day at least once a week without eating anything at all.

Foodbank Victoria chief executive Dave McNamara said: “I think that’s a very sad indictment on us as a society.” The report states: One in five children have gone hungry at some stage in the past year and of those, eighteen per cent go to school without eating breakfast at least once a week; eleven percent go to bed without eating dinner at least once a week;  nine per cent go all day without eating at least once a week; twenty nine percent of parents facing food stress often go without so their kids can eat.
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Melanie Kent established the Helping Hands charity in two thousand seven, initially to help drought-affected people in rural Victoria. She now runs three food pantries in Airport West, Sunshine and near Bendigo, and demand is unprecedented. Miss Kent said six hundred families used the food pantry service every week, the majority of them women and children.
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The Foodbank ‘Rumbling Tummies: Child Hunger in Australia’ report was carried out by McCrindle. It surveyed one thousand two Australian parents with children under the age of fifteen and a further six hundred two parents living in food insecure households.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/apr/15/private-health-insurance-analysis-shows-double-digit-rise-in-some-premiums

Thousands of private health insurance customers have seen the cost of their premiums soar well above the expected three point ninety five percent average increase, with figures showing more than a dozen policies have jumped by double-digit figures. A new analysis of the annual health insurance premium increases – which came in on April one – reveals that in one case a private provider increased costs by forty five percent.

The figures were revealed by consumer advocacy group Choice on Sunday. The group said in some cases the increases will mean families will need to pay an additional eight hundred dollars a year, and will put more pressure on the growing number of Australians already struggling to pay their private health insurance.
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The largest premium increase of forty five percent was from Saint Lukes in Tasmania for its Super Extras policy. The increase came after the company changed the price of the product to reflect the different cost of the service in different states. While customers in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory will pay the forty five percent increase, customers in Victoria will still see an increase of thirty five percent.
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In January the health minister, Greg Hunt, announced the three point ninety five percent weighted increased, which would mean the average family pays an extra one hundred forty three dollars for private health insurance in one year. At the time he advertised it as the lowest premium increase since two thousand one, and said reforms to prostheses pricing had helped to keep premiums down because prior to the changes health funds had been paying benefits for medical devices and prostheses at a rate to five times higher than prices charged for the same products in the public system.