Author: healthprofessionalradio

Overview

• Australians have joined the battle against the deadly Ebola virus raging through West Africa, which has now claimed more than 2,800 lives.

• An attraction at the Perth Royal Show based on an infamous London mental health institution has been condemned and there are calls to shut it down.

• The head of the Bethlem Royal Hospital in England has asked the Perth Royal Show to withdraw a controversial attraction based on the mental health institution, claiming it is “deeply offensive”.

Overview

• The ACT’s Chief Minister has apologised after an elderly patient with a potentially life-threatening condition was left sitting in his own urine for hours at the Canberra Hospital.

• Sufferers of rare cancers are being sought for the largest ever Australian study into possible causes of the disease.

• It’s not called liquid gold for nothing. Breastmilk is largely considered the best food for babies and both the World Health Organization (WHO) and Australia’s National Health and Medical Research Council recommend newborns be breastfed exclusively for their first six months.

Overview

• Disability advocates are concerned people with disabilities will not be adequately represented under changes to the sector proposed by the Federal Government.

• Allegations of fraud and misuse of public money by private doctors will not be investigated by Queensland’s corruption watchdog.

• AMA President Associate Professor Brian Owler has called on the Federal Government to immediately drop plans to slash $5 from the Medicare rebate following the release of figures showing claims that health spending is growing unsustainably are baseless.

Overview

• Consumers can look forward to longer shopping hours, buying alcohol and pharmacy products at the supermarket and potentially cheaper road tolls if the Federal Government’s competition review panel gets its draft recommendations into law.

• A three-day lockdown aimed at stemming the world’s worst ever Ebola epidemic has ended in Sierra Leone.

• Baby girl born on side of Melbourne’s busy Westgate Freeway. Parents Courtesy Hove and Joshua Deen were driving along the Westgate Freeway about 9:00pm on Saturday when they realised they would not get to the hospital in time for the birth.

Overview

• To stop the spread of ebola, there must be no physical contact with the infected – which makes for a particularly cruel fate for those who already have the disease…

• Researchers who measured the slipperiness of banana peel, the ability of pork strips to stop nosebleeds, and the reactions of reindeer to people in polar bear suits were among the winners of this year’s Ig Nobel prizes.

• Antidepressant use has risen sharply in recent years. Yet experts say it’s not just a case of depression treatments being given out too readily.

Overview

• The study, published in the journal, Pharmaceutical Biology, looks at how the three major active components in pomegranate interfere with the delivery of drugs via proteins known as solute carrier transporters.

• A Danish study has provided support for a controversial theory that says autism spectrum disorders and schizophrenia are opposite ends of a spectrum, with normal brain function somewhere in between.

• The Australian Antarctic Division (AAD), based in Hobart, is calling on citizen scientists to scour thousands of online photographs from the comfort of their armchairs.

Overview

• The New South Wales Government has announced a clinical trial of the medical use of marijuana, making its legal use one step closer in the state.

• The international study used DNA from 29,000 children who had been diagnosed with developmental delay and compared it with DNA from nearly 20,000 normal adults.

• George, a 10-year-old standard goldfish is recovering after delicate surgery to remove tumour on his head.
  

Overview

• In the first study designed to assess how partially ‘humanising’ brains of a different species affects key cognitive functions, scientists report that mice carrying Foxp2 – a human gene associated with language – learned new ways to find food in mazes faster than normal mice.

• Indigenous health and domestic violence agencies say they are grappling with how to save their services from folding under Federal Government budget changes.

• A Perth woman who has been working on the frontline in West Africa’s fight against the deadly Ebola outbreak says the response has been woefully inadequate so far and is calling on the Australian Government to do more.
  

Overview

• A coroner has referred a midwife to a the NSW Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC) after finding a baby died from undiagnosed foetal distress after a failed home birth on the state’s mid north coast.

• Children living in remote South Australia are almost twice as likely to have a cavity, or missing or filled teeth as their city counterparts.

• A device that uses magnets to extract bacteria, fungi and toxins from blood could one day throw a lifeline to patients with sepsis and other infections, researchers say.

Overview

• The Government has been advised Ms Holden is suing over her termination as head of the Southern Tasmanian Health Organisation.

• The Heart Foundation has called on all Victorian political parties to make prevention and treatment of heart disease a priority for this November’s state-election, highlighting six areas where the next state government can improve voter’s heart health and reduce hospital admissions.

• The world’s oldest female competitive hockey player is considering hanging up her boots after playing in a semi-final match in Canberra.