The Health News – 23 September 2016

Overview:
•  During 2013-14, there were 480 overnight mental health hospitalisations in inner-Adelaide, out of an estimated population of little more than 22,000 people — or 2,179 hospitalisations per 100,000 people — the highest in the country.

• Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan have pledged more than $US3 billion ($4 billion) towards a plan to “cure, prevent or manage all disease[s] within our children’s lifetime”. Investments will include a bioscience research centre, and plans for a chip to diagnose diseases, continuous blood stream monitoring and a map of cell types in body.

• A Sydney naturopath appeared in the Parramatta District Court, charged with recklessly causing grievous bodily harm and aiding or abetting failure to provide necessities of life to a child. The naturopath’s defence has previously argued the blame lay with the child’s mother.

News on Health Professional Radio. Today is the  23rd of September 2016. Read by Rebecca Foster. Health News

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-09-22/adelaide-tops-mental-health-hospitalisation-rates/7866226

Adelaide’s inner city has the highest per person rate in Australia of overnight mental health hospitalisations, a new report has found.

The Institute of Health and Welfare has for the first time released figures from more than 300 areas across Australia detailing overnight mental health hospitalisations during 2013-14.

During that year, there were 480 overnight mental health hospitalisations in inner-Adelaide, out of an estimated population of little more than 22,000 people — or 2,179 hospitalisations per 100,000 people — the highest in the country.

Meanwhile …the state’s Yorke Peninsula (1,652 per 100,000 people) and the northern and eastern outback (1,828 hospitalisations per 100,000 people) recorded some of the highest per capita hospitalisation rates and highest for their location categories of outer regional and remote areas.

The report said the most common group of mental health conditions requiring hospitalisation was from drug and alcohol use, with 38,636 hospitalisations which accounted for 299,829 bed days nationally.

The ACT had the lowest rates across all mental health categories.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-09-22/zuckerberg-and-chan-to-donate-billions-towards-medical-research/7866930

Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan have pledged more than $US3 billion ($4 billion) towards a plan to “cure, prevent or manage all disease[s] within our children’s lifetime”.

Investments will include a bioscience research centre, and plans for a chip to diagnose diseases, continuous blood stream monitoring and a map of cell types in body.

“This is a big goal,” Mr Zuckerberg said at a San Francisco event hosted by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

“But we spent the last few years speaking with experts who think it is possible, so we dug in.”

Later on Facebook, Mr Zuckerberg outlined the initiative’s plans, saying he was “optimistic” all diseases could be cured or managed within his children’s lifetime.

“Throughout history, most scientific breakthroughs have been preceded by the invention of new tools to help us see problems in new ways — like the telescope, the microscope and DNA sequencing.

“It’s not hard to imagine the modern tools required to accelerate breakthroughs in today’s four major disease areas.

“So we’re going to focus on bringing scientists and engineers together to build these new tools and technologies.”

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative could donate $US3 billion over the next decade, he said.

The first project will be named the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, a $600 million research centre bringing together its own scientists and engineers, as well as those from Stanford, the University of California and Berkeley.

“We plan to invest billions of dollars over decades. But it will take years for these tools to be developed and longer to put them into full use,” he wrote.

“This is hard and we need to be patient, but it’s important.”

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-09-22/sydney-naturopath-pleads-not-guilty-after-child-nearly-starved/7867482

A Sydney naturopath has pleaded not guilty to charges relating to a raw food diet she allegedly devised for a breastfeeding mother, whose baby nearly starved to death.

The 60-year-old woman appeared in [the] Parramatta District Court … charged with recklessly causing grievous bodily harm and aiding or abetting failure to provide necessities of life to a child.

She pleaded not guilty to both charges.

The prosecution alleges that in February 2015, the naturopath told a 33-year-old woman she could cure her baby son’s eczema, telling her to abandon a prescribed steroid cream treatment.

It is alleged the naturopath told the woman, who was still breastfeeding, the eczema was caused by toxins, which needed to be eliminated, and allegedly put the woman on a raw food diet, before advising her to fast completely when she developed a fever.

The naturopath’s defence has previously argued the blame lay with the child’s mother.

The 60-year-old has been committed to stand trial over the charges and will appear again in court at the end of this month.