Author: healthprofessionalradio

Overview:
• Disturbing findings reveal many people battling anorexia are not under the care of a doctor or medical practitioner. According to the interim findings of the Anorexia Nervosa Genetics Initiative at the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute in Brisbane, just 32 per cent of people with anorexia are regularly seeing a doctor.

• A report into autism diagnosis in Australia has found discrepancies in how children are assessed for the condition and calls for a national standard to ensure early intervention. The study was produced through the Cooperative Research Centre for Living with Autism.

• Scientists at Toulouse University discovered slime mould — a single-cell organism at the bottom of the food chain — can learn. The finding has important implications for understanding the evolution of intelligence, as well as how many organisms can be “smart” and successful without a brain.

Overview:
• Workplace authorities will investigate concerns about mould at the Royal Hobart Hospital, which construction workers say has affected their health.

• A major boost for suicide prevention programs and a focus on so-called suicide “hotspots” will be the centrepiece of mental health investment in Wednesday’s Victorian budget.

• Have you ever found yourself wondering just how dirty your gym is? A recent study found the free weights examined had 362 times more germs than the average toilet seat. But infectious disease expert Professor Allen Cheng, from Monash University, said he had not seen any evidence from Australia of MRSA being spread through a gym environment.

Overview:
• Victoria has launched a new video campaign, Immunity for Community to remind parents of the importance of vaccinating their children and to encourage people with questions or concerns about vaccination.

• Australian neuroscientists at Macquarie University’s faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences in Sydney we’re using world-first research on a Zebrafish to find a cure for a fatal hereditary disease, Machado Joseph Disease (MJD) burdening Aboriginal communities.

• Researchers from the University of Sydney and the Sydney and Westmead children’s hospitals found a new virus, parechovirus that put 80 Australian babies in hospital causes developmental delays and brain damage. There is no specific treatment and no vaccine available against parechovirus.

Overview:
• Controversial reforms to South Australia’s health system are being rushed through without proper consideration of their impact on patients needing surgery, according to Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM).

• Researchers from Brisbane’s Queensland University of Technology have helped identify hundreds of genes that cause debilitating chronic inflammatory diseases – Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis (collectively known as inflammatory bowel disease), psoriasis, and primary sclerosing cholangitis.

• Political maverick Nick Xenophon’s candidate for the seat of Kingston, Damian Carey, is standing by a paper he wrote suggesting acupuncture in the female genital region could cure infertility.