Author: healthprofessionalradio

Overview

• Eleven month-old Charlie Gard who was at the center of high-profile court battle has died just days before his first birthday. Charlie, born on August 4, 2016, inherited the faulty RRM2B gene that affects the cells responsible for energy production and respiration, leaving him unable to move or breathe unaided.
• The Government has announced that the mental health workforce is to gain 21,000 new posts treating an extra million patients a year to help deliver Theresa May’s promised “revolution” in the sector. A campaign will also be launched encouraging more trainee doctors to specialise in mental health.
• Any plans to introduce a test for Down’s syndrome within NHS maternity services in Wales need to be “carefully considered”, a charity has said. Non-invasive prenatal testing is considered a safer, more accurate test for Down’s syndrome, which reduces the risk of miscarriage. It will be rolled out in England from two thousand eighteen following a recommendation by the UK National Screening Committee.

Overview

• U.S. President Donald Trump threatened on Saturday to end government payments to health insurers if Congress does not pass a new healthcare bill and goaded them to not abandon their seven-year quest to replace the Obamacare law.
• The U.S. Food and Drug Administration aims to reduce nicotine levels in cigarettes while exploring measures to move smokers toward e-cigarettes, in a major regulatory shift that sent traditional cigarette company stocks plunging.
• Anna Villarreal, a women’s health advocate and entrepreneur  has created LifeStory Health, a Boston-based company that’s trying to develop the first noninvasive menstrual blood diagnostic test.

Overview

• Western Australia’s health costs have tripled over the past decade, adding to the State Government’s significant budget woes and prompting a system-wide review of spending. Reducing the rate of growth in the health sector will be a monumental challenge for the Government, particularly given WA’s hospitals are more expensive than those in other states.
• Shocking new data shows that the number of Australians killed as a result of methamphetamine use has doubled in just 6 years, shocking new data shows. Professor Shane Darke from the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre and his team examined 1,649 fatalities linked to the illicit drug between 2009 and 2015 and found a mortality rate up to six times greater than the general population.
• DonateLife Week is urging people to join the Australian Organ Donor Register online and to share their decision with family and friends. Last year just over 1,440 Australians received a life-saving transplant – up 17% from the previous year.

Overview

• A High Court judge has decided that terminally-ill Charlie Gard will be moved to a hospice and have his life support withdrawn soon after. His parents had wanted a private team to care for Charlie so they could have more time with him. Charlie’s parents stated that their final request was denied.
• A record number of people in the UK are in work but at the same time, demand for mental health services is soaring. One in 4 adults in the UK experience a diagnosable mental health problem each year.
• Prince William, Duke of Cambridge will complete his last shift as an air ambulance pilot on before returning to his full time job as a royal. The prince revealed last year that his first ‘call-out’ as an air ambulance pilot was to the suicide of a young man, a job that led him to think deeply about the pressures on individuals. This led him and his wife, Catherine to set up the mental health charity Heads Together.

Overview

• Baltimore Ravens offensive lineman John Urschel, a doctoral candidate in applied mathematics, abruptly announced his retirement from football at the age of 26, just before the first full-team practice of training camp. His decision came two days after a medical study indicated that chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) was found in nearly 99% of deceased NFL players’ brains that were donated to scientific research.
• Oscar-winning actress Angelina Jolie has opened up about her struggle with Bell’s palsy, a rare and often mysterious neurologic condition with Vanity Fair. Bell’s palsy is a condition that leads to paralysis of the facial nerve, the peripheral nerve responsible for facial movement.
• Thirteen  individuals have become ill from a serious and sometimes fatal fungal infection previously unseen in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday. The fungus, Candida auris, is known to occur in healthcare settings such as hospitals and nursing homes.

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.

Overview

• The Heart of Australia cardiology clinic has received a one million dollar donation from a family who wished to remain anonymous. The Heart of Australia (Heart Bus) was founded by engineer turned cardiologist Rolph Gomes, who fitted out a 25 metre semi-trailer with the same specialised equipment found in a city cardiology practice. Each month the truck travels 8,000 kilometers as it visits 12 regional towns to provide endocrinology and some respiratory services.
• The Federal Government has confirmed that China has temporarily banned beef imports from 6 Australian meatworks. Trade Minister Steven Ciobo aid the ban related to Chinese concern about labelling non-compliance. There is no suggestion health or food safety issues are involved.
• The Commonwealth Bank has come under fire from disability advocates for its nationwide rollout of EFTPOS machines which they say are inaccessible to blind and vision-impaired people. Blind Citizens Australia is now calling on the bank to stop rolling out the machines, until the technology is able to be used by all people — with or without a disability.

Overview

• The prospect of chlorine-washed chicken flooding into the UK as the price of a post-Brexit trade deal with the US has garnered a great deal of attention in recent days. Chlorine-washed chickens are symbolic of much wider concerns around animal welfare and environmental standards that could become a crucial negotiating point in any post-Brexit trade deal between the US and the UK.
• Scientists have developed an experimental surgical glue inspired by the mucus secreted by slugs that could offer an alternative to sutures and staples for closing wounds. While some medical glues already exist, they often adhere weakly, are not particularly flexible and frequently cannot be used in very wet conditions.
• Antibiotic resistance is a growing threat. It can build up after bacteria have become repeatedly exposed to antibiotics. The bacteria change or adapt so they are no longer affected by the antibiotic. This renders antibiotics ineffective against infections they were previously able to treat.