Author: healthprofessionalradio

Overview

• Ten people have been admitted to hospital this month after eating wild mushrooms in various parts of New South Wales, prompting a warning from health authorities.

• The Tasmanian Government will pay private providers in Tasmania and Victoria to operate on patients who have no hope of being treated in the public system.

• The bid for more palliative care services received strong support at a meeting in Orange last night in the Central West of New South Wales.

Overview

• Scientists from Australia and the UK have done the most in-depth analysis yet of 100 pancreatic cancer genomes and highlighted 4 subtypes that may help guide future patient treatment.

• Tasmania’s Resources Minister is putting pressure on his cabinet colleagues to go bald to support leukaemia patients.

• Serco is facing a wages bill of about $60,000 to pay for extra staff to ensure it meets contract deadlines for sterilising equipment at Fiona Stanley Hospital.

Overview

• Two out of three smokers, or about 1.8 million Australians, will die because of their habit, the first large-scale Australian study on the link between smoking and mortality shows.

• Tasmanian growers are calling for stricter food labelling and imported product testing, in the wake of the Hepatitis A outbreak, allegedly linked to imported frozen berries.

• Three major Melbourne hospitals have no cash to draw on immediately and only 12 of Victoria’s public hospitals have enough cash to fund their operating activities for a week or less, according to a report by the auditor-general.

Overview

• A new “silver” strain of the increasingly virulent and antibiotic-resistant staphylococcus bacteria superbug has been discovered by Northern Territory medical researchers.

• The report – titled The Hidden Harm: Alcohol’s Impact on Children and Families and launched by Rosie Batty today – found that 10,000 children were in the childcare protection system because their parents or carers abused alcohol.

• “We found that oxytocin blocks alcohol’s intoxicating effects and it prevents alcohol from acting at the sites in the brain that are involved in alcohol’s intoxicating effects,” says team member Dr Michael Bowen, from the University of Sydney’s School of Psychology.

Overview

• West Australian researchers have discovered a way to use peptides to protect stroke victims from brain damage, and say the breakthrough may reduce the risk of sustaining a serious disability from a stroke, especially for people living in remote Australia.

• The Victorian Government says an independent inquiry into toxic chemical use in the state’s central goldfields will look at possible health impacts.

• The AMA has released the 2014 AMA Specialist Trainee Survey – a national snapshot of medical training that provides valuable feedback to medical colleges on how Australia’s future doctors value their medical training experience.

Overview

• The World Health Organisation has approved a rapid test for Ebola, in a potential breakthrough for ending an epidemic that has killed almost 10,000 people in West Africa.

• Three women and a child have been taken to hospital after being hit by a car which mounted a footpath in at Belmore Sydney’s south west.

• An English advertising campaign designed to encourage girls and women to play sport has gone viral, attracting 16 million views on Facebook and YouTube.

News on Health Professional Radio. Today is the 23rd February 2015. Read by Rebecca Foster.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-02-21/who-approves-breakthrough-15-minute-ebola-test/6170412

The World Health Organisation has approved a rapid test for Ebola, in a potential breakthrough for ending an epidemic that has killed almost 10,000 people in West Africa.

The 15-minute test is a little less accurate than the so-called gold standard of lab assessment, but does not need electricity or highly trained personnel to use it, WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic said.
“It’s a first rapid test. It’s definitely a breakthrough,” he said.
The standard laboratory test has a turnaround time of 12-24 hours. While the rapid test is not failsafe, it could quickly identify patients who need quarantine and make it much easier to verify rapidly any new outbreaks.
“Where possible, obviously results from this antigen rapid test should be confirmed by testing by blood sample using normal PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests,” Mr Jasarevic added, referring to a DNA analysis to detect the disease.
The so-called ReEBOV Antigen Rapid Test, manufactured by Corgenix, involves putting a drop of blood on a small paper strip and waiting 15 minutes for a reaction in a test tube.
It is able to correctly identify about 92 per cent of Ebola infected patients and 85 per cent of those not infected with the virus, the WHO said.
…
Mr Jasarevic gave no details as to where and when the test would be introduced, but did indicate it would likely be bought by a United Nations agency.
The health charity Medecins Sans Frontieres, which has been at the forefront of the fight against Ebola, had also expressed an interest, he said.
Health watchdogs are keen on a fast test because the current PCR test, which looks for telltale genetic signatures, can take up to 24 hours.
A simple but reliable test would help doctors in the field to quarantine people likely to have the virus and airports to test passengers before they get on a flight.
…
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-02-22/three-injured-after-car-mounts-footpath-in-sydneys-belmore/6193044

Three women and a child have been taken to hospital after being hit by a car which mounted a footpath in at Belmore Sydney’s south west.

An ambulance that was heading to the scene of the accident struck a brick wall, causing a crash that then involved three other cars at Condell Park.
The child, aged between two and three years old, suffered head injuries and is in a serious condition.
A pram the infant was sitting in was left mangled on the footpath.
Two women are in a serious but stable condition and one is still considered serious.
All four were taken to St George Hospital.
Police are questioning the 50-year-old driver of the car.
…

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-02-22/this-girl-can-viral-campaign-encouraging-females-in-sport/6175398

An English advertising campaign designed to encourage girls and women to play sport has gone viral, attracting 16 million views on Facebook and YouTube.

This Girl Can features a squadron of joyful, jumping and perspiring women, and aims to address the huge disparity between female and male participation in sport.
England ranks third in Europe in terms of male participation, and ranks 19th for female participation.
 
“So there is the most enormous gender gap, and if we could just crack that it would make a massive difference to the lives of women and girls,” Sport England chief executive Jennie Price said.
The advertising campaign also takes on the hefty issue of how women do not fear physical activity, but rather the judgment of others.
“And [the campaign] is edgy and it is disruptive but it’s basically celebrating all those women and girls who have decided, ‘Damn it. I don’t care what people think about me. I’m going to get out there and do it’,” Ms Price said.
She said she did not expect the extent to which the videos would go viral, saying the campaign seemed to have “really struck a chord with people”.
“I think the message we’re trying to get across here, which is that if you have this thought in your head when you think about sport and exercise, that ‘I’m not fit enough. I look dreadful in those clothes. I don’t really know the rules anymore’, that that is completely normal,” she said.
She said the Australian director of the television ad, Kim Gehrig, was “absolutely fundamental” to the creation of the campaign.
…
Ms Price is unapologetic about using the word “girl” for the campaign.
She said it was to target teenagers and to take the word as a youthful crown for older women.

This has been the news on Health Professional Radio. For more information on today’s items head to hpr.fm/news and subscribe to our podcast on itunes.

Overview

• WA’s health promotion agency Healthway has been strongly criticised for inappropriate use of perks relating to sponsorship arrangements with major sporting organisations, in a report by the State Government’s public sector watchdog.

• All Australian drivers should be made to undertake first aid training before receiving or renewing their licences, St John Ambulance says.

• A study by the New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics shows the frequency of domestic assaults jumps rapidly in local government areas where there are more than two hotels per 1,000 residents.