The Health News – 28 October 2016
Overview:
• Andrew Katelaris, A deregistered Sydney doctor has defended injecting patients with cannabis oil, despite breaching a code of conduct for non-registered health professionals. The commission concluded Dr Katelaris put his own interest in self-protection and self-promotion ahead of the health and safety of two vulnerable women suffering from ovarian cancer.
• Evidence of a highly drug-resistant salmonella superbug that could infect humans and livestock has been discovered in Australia for the first time which was found in an infected cat. It is resistant to carbapenems, a drug used as a life-saving defence in Australian hospitals.
• The CSIRO is partnering with US research company Verily and James Cook University to target the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which carries the potentially deadly diseases. They intend to infect the male mozzies with a bacteria known as wolbachia, which renders the males sterile.
News on Health Professional Radio. Today is the 28th of October 2016. Read by Rebecca Foster. Health News
A deregistered Sydney doctor has defended injecting patients with cannabis oil, despite breaching a code of conduct for non-registered health professionals.
Andrew Katelaris was a decade ago convicted of growing nearly 50,000 cannabis plants near Dungog in the Hunter Valley.
At the same time he was deregistered for three years over the self-administration of cannabis and for supplying it to some patients.
The Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC) has now determined Dr Katelaris, who also holds a doctorate, has been involved in more breaches.
The commission found he gave injections of black market cannabis oil to two women with ovarian cancer last year.
In handing down its judgement on Tuesday, the commission said Dr Katelaris had devised a hasty, ill-conceived and unsafe clinical trial of injected cannabis oil as a treatment for malignant ascites.
It added that he did not obtain informed consent from the women to whom he administered untested cannabis oil.
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The commission concluded Dr Katelaris put his own interest in self-protection and self-promotion ahead of the health and safety of two vulnerable women suffering from ovarian cancer.
It found he posed a risk to the health and safety of members of the public, prompting him to be permanently prohibited from supplying or administering cannabis or any of its derivatives, to any person for the treatment or purported treatment of cancer.
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In his defence, Dr Katelaris slammed the scientific credentials of the HCCC.
He said the women involved in his pilot study had had good outcomes and he would continue his research.
Evidence of a highly drug-resistant salmonella superbug that could infect humans and livestock has been discovered in Australia for the first time, in a domestic animal.
The salmonella strain, which was found in an infected cat, is resistant to carbapenems, a drug used as a life-saving defence in Australian hospitals.
Experts believe this rare and unusual resistance may pose a serious threat to public health as it does not respond to about 90 percent of antimicrobial drugs.
Murdoch University researcher Dr Sam Abraham led a study to identify the risk of the salmonella bug, along with a team of medical and veterinary researchers from Concord Hospital, Sydney University, Concord Vets and Adelaide University.
“This is the first time that a salmonella strain with resistance to most drugs has been reported in any Australian domestic animal and it is a significant concern to public health,” Dr Abraham said.
Laboratory sequencing showed the superbug was a strain of regular salmonella that had picked up an antibiotic resistant piece of DNA.
The bug was discovered after a cat from a shelter was taken to Sydney vet with a serious gut infection last year.
It is not known how or where the cat, which was euthanased, contracted the superbug.
The study has been accepted for publication in Scientific Reports.
Scientists are about to embark on a new project aimed at beating zika, dengue and other mosquito-borne diseases.
The CSIRO is partnering with US research company Verily and James Cook University to target the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which carries the potentially deadly diseases.
The study will see researchers releasing maleAedes aegypti mosquitos — which have been marked with dye — into the community and then tracking their mating movements through a network of traps.
They then intend to infect the male mozzies with a bacteria known as wolbachia, which renders the males sterile.
When the sterile males try to mate with females, the eggs do not produce larvae, suppressing the disease-carrying female population.
“This is completely safe, the bacteria has absolutely no effect on humans and is only mosquito bacteria,” CSIRO’s Rob Grenfell said.
“The other issue is that the male mosquitos, which we are using carrying this, do not bite humans they actually feed on nectar.”
But Dr Grenfell said the project would not proceed without the support of the Innisfail community, where the trials are expected to take place soon.
The pilot projects are expected to start later this year.