The Health News Australia March 3 2018

• Nestle has bowed to pressure from public health advocates and is removing the Health Star Rating from Milo. Public health groups have targeted the food giant for labelling the sugary chocolate powder with 4.5 stars, when they claim it should only score 1.5 out of a possible maximum of 5 stars. The rating will only be removed from the Milo powder, but not other Milo products. New packaging will come into stores in the next 2 months. The George Institute for Global Health praised Nestle’s move.
• A nation-wide survey released by Ovarian Cancer Australia has found most women didn’t know the difference between ovarian cancer and cervical cancer. Alarming new research shows too many Australian women incorrectly believe the HPV vaccine protects them against ovarian cancer, while the majority still think a Pap smear can detect the lethal disease. Ovarian Cancer Australia CEO Jane Hill says the survey findings are “staggering” and urged women to become better educated on the disease.
• Paramedics across NSW are giving ambulance patients a free ride to protest the state government’s order that they pay for their own Working With Children checks. As of Wednesday night, paramedics stopped collecting billing information from patients transported in ambulances. Australian Paramedics Association New South Wales Secretary Steve Pearce says the ban is a protest against the $80 fee, not the check itself.
  

News on Health Professional Radio. Today is the 3rd of March 2018. Read by Tabetha Moreto.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-01/milos-4.5-health-star-rating-stripped-away-by-nestle/9496890

Nestle has bowed to pressure from public health advocates and is removing the Health Star Rating from Milo. Public health groups have targeted the food giant for labelling the sugary chocolate powder with four point five stars, when they claim it should only score one point five out of a possible maximum of five stars.

Margaret Stuart, Nestle Oceania’s head of corporate and external relations, told stakeholders in an email the company had decided to remove the rating from the powder in Australia and New Zealand “pending the outcome of the Government’s review of the Health Star Rating system”. She added:  “In withdrawing the Health Star Rating from Milo powder, we hope to avoid further confusion about how the Health Star Rating system is designed and reduce the risk of damage to a system which is fundamentally sound.”

Nestle had labelled Milo with four point five stars, arguing its rating reflected that Milo was designed to be consumed as three teaspoons in a cup of skim milk. It said the rating was in line with food regulations and the requirements of the Health Star Rating system. But public health groups say in reality, that was not how many people consumed Milo and when judged on its merits alone, it should only get one point five stars. In a regular serving of Milo powder, forty six percent is sugar. However Nestle says that much of that comes from the milk powder and malted barley ingredients.

The rating will only be removed from the Milo powder, but not other Milo products. New packaging will come into stores in the next two months. The George Institute for Global Health praised Nestle’s move.
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The Federal Government is reviewing the Health Star Rating system, with findings due mid-next year.

https://healthtimes.com.au/hub/womens-health/58/news/aap/lack-of-understanding-of-gynaecological-cancer-among-australian-women/3204/

A nation-wide survey released by Ovarian Cancer Australia has found most women didn’t know the difference between ovarian cancer and cervical cancer. Alarming new research shows too many Australian women incorrectly believe the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine protects them against ovarian cancer, while the majority still think a Pap smear can detect the lethal disease.

A nation-wide survey released by Ovarian Cancer Australia has revealed a lack of understanding of gynaecological cancer among Australian women. The survey, conducted by Wallis Market and Social Research, found nearly one in three didn’t know the difference between ovarian cancer and cervical cancer.

More than seventy per cent did not know if, or incorrectly believed, the HPV vaccine protected them against ovarian cancer. More than fifty percent incorrectly believed that the Pap smear can detect ovarian cancer. Both medical procedures only protect against cervical cancer.

Ovarian Cancer Australia CEO Jane Hill says the survey findings are “staggering” and urged women to become better educated on the disease.
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Ovarian cancer has the lowest survival rate of any women’s cancer and only forty four percent of women diagnosed with ovarian cancer will be alive five years after diagnosis in comparison to cervical cancer’s five year survival. If found in its early stages, survival increases to eighty percent. Miss Hill says early detection is key to beating the disease and warned women who did not know the signs and symptoms were putting their lives at risk.

https://www.9news.com.au/health/2018/03/01/09/30/nsw-ambos-refuse-to-collect-billing-info

Paramedics across New South Wales are giving ambulance patients a free ride to protest the state government’s order that they pay for their own Working With Children checks. As of Wednesday night, paramedics stopped collecting billing information from patients transported in ambulances. Australian Paramedics Association New South Wales Secretary Steve Pearce says the ban is a protest against the eighty dollar fee, not the check itself.
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Mister Pearce said the state’s sixteen thousand police and Fire & Rescue staff had already been granted an exemption from the eighty dollar fee. Paramedics are required to have their Working With Children checks by the end of the month but Mr Pearce expects up to sixty percent of officers to refuse.
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The union boss said although small, the fee was a “slap in the face” to paramedics who regularly work overtime due to staffing issues.
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Mister Pearce estimated the financial loss to New South Wales Ambulance since the protest kicked in was already enough to cover the two hundred twenty thousand dollars required to pay for all checks.
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NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard was scathing of the union taking industrial action.
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The minister said eighty thousand teachers, fifty thousand nurses, tens of thousands of other New South Wales workers and about a third of the state’s four thousand six hundred paramedics had already paid the eighty dollar fee. Opposition health spokesman Walt Secord says the government knew about the paramedics’ threat to take industrial action two years ago but did nothing.