The Health News – 28 August 2015

Overview:

• New mapping from Diabetes Australia has shown that diabetes is most prevalent in South Australia and the Northern Territory. Chief executive Professor Greg Johnson said that it’s estimated that about one third of all hospital beds in Australia every day are occupied for people with diabetes or a diabetes-related complication, and most of that is preventable.

• A proposal to ban liquor stores in Adelaide’s central business district from selling alcohol before 11:00am will be taken to the council as part of a strategy to tackle anti-social behaviour.

• Dr Georgina Hollway, from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, and Professor Peter Currie and Dr Phong Nguyen of the Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute at Monash University, have won the UNSW 2015 Eureka Prize for Scientific Research. They were awarded the prize in recognition of their groundbreaking research into stem cell generation.

News on Health Professional Radio. Today is the 28th August 2015. Read by Rebecca Foster.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-27/diabetes-incidence-mapped-australia/6729662

Diabetes is most prevalent in South Australia and the Northern Territory, new mapping from Diabetes Australia has shown.

It said 58 people per 1,000 were registered as diabetes sufferers in South Australia, and the Northern Territory was close behind with 56 people per 1,000.

“The new map makes the enormity of the diabetes epidemic very clear,” Diabetes Australia chief executive Professor Greg Johnson said.

The data indicated the highest rates were generally in rural and remote areas.

“Country South Australia is the primary health network with the highest prevalence rate, followed very closely by Gippsland in Victoria,” Professor Johnson said.

“There’s also staggering rates of diabetes in our Indigenous communities.”

He said the mapping lets people, including health professionals, analyse the regional data in detail as they look for how best to tackle the issue.

“The map allows people to really drill down by postcode and local government area and that reveals a very alarming impact, with prevalence rates above 20 per cent in some postcodes,” he said.

“It’s estimated that about one third of all our hospital beds in Australia every day are occupied and utilised for people with diabetes or a diabetes-related complication, and most of that is preventable.”

The diabetes incidence is lowest in the ACT, with 40 cases per 1,000 people. Health News

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-26/push-to-ban-morning-alcohol-sales-to-protect-most-vulnerable/6727154

A proposal to ban liquor stores in Adelaide’s CBD from selling alcohol before 11:00am will be taken to the council in a bid to protect the city’s “most vulnerable”.

The push comes after Adelaide City Council voted in favour of a 12-month extension of its night-time alcohol bans in the city’s parklands as part of a strategy to tackle anti-social behaviour.

The curfew will continue to apply from 8:00pm each night until 11:00am the next day until September 2016.

Deputy Lord Mayor Houssam Abiad said the community felt safer since the dry zone was created and the council would monitor the ban.

“The same program, the same area, purely an extension of the 12-month period,” he said.

“A closely monitored extension for that matter and as there is improvement in anti-social behaviour, we will keep assessing the dry zone as required and eliminate it if we need to.”

Adelaide City councillor Sandy Wilkinson told 891 ABC Adelaide he wanted to see further restrictions placed on [alcohol]… in the city because the problem was “pretty severe”.

“I remember seeing a woman, after I dropped my children off to school … with a five-litre cask … at quarter to nine in the morning walking out of one of Adelaide’s duopoly of liquor outlets, who I think are fuelling the problem by selling alcohol before 11 o’clock in the morning when the booze ban comes off,” he said.

“I don’t think it is right that big corporates should be profiteering out of selling alcohol to our most vulnerable people, which is just not helping the situation.”

Cr Wilkinson said he would introduce the matter at a council committee meeting in the near future and would lobby for the council to ask State Government to restrict liquor shop hours in the CBD.

http://www.garvan.org.au/news-events/news/garvan-and-monash-researchers-win-eureka-prize-for-scientific-research

Dr Georgina Hollway, from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, and Professor Peter Currie and Dr Phong Nguyen of the Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute at Monash University, have won the UNSW 2015 Eureka Prize for Scientific Research. They were awarded the prize in recognition of their groundbreaking research into stem cell generation.

The team uncovered a process that is crucial for the formation of haematopoietic stem cells, a very special group of cells that ultimately generate all the blood and immune cells in our bodies.

They described a novel group of “buddy cells” that are required for haematopoietic stem cells to form. The buddy cells were observed to migrate from one region within zebrafish embryos to another, stimulating the formation of new haematopoietic stem cells upon their arrival.

The finding, which was published last year in the prestigious journal Nature, moves us closer to one of the Holy Grails of modern medicine – being able to make haematopoietic stem cells in the laboratory.

A freely available supply of these blood stem cells would be of enormous therapeutic benefit for treating a wide range of diseases, including cancers and other disorders of the blood and immune system.

Presented annually by the Australian Museum, the Australian Museum Eureka Prizes reward excellence in the fields of research and innovation, leadership, science communication and journalism and school science. Drs Hollway and Nguyen and Prof Currie were awarded their prize at …[Wednesday] night’s gala dinner at the Sydney Town Hall.

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