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• A flu outbreak sweeping the country is causing people and institutions to take precautions against its spread, including a Catholic diocese in New York state that has issued healthy guidelines for its churches and schools. According to the CDC, since early October, the influenza outbreak has been widespread in all states, except Hawaii.  At least 37 children across the nation have died from the flu this season.
• A groundbreaking Australian study has found that parents are mistaken if they think giving their teens alcohol removes drinking-related risks. In many countries, parents provide alcohol to their underage kids as a way to introduce them to drinking carefully, and believe it will protect them from the harms of heavy drinking. But the practice appears to do more harm than good. The investigators found that young people who got alcohol from parents were more likely than other teens to also get it elsewhere.
• Nearly 1 in 4 women have experienced serious physical violence at the hands of a partner. They often end up in the emergency room or the doctor’s office. But they don’t typically volunteer the reason for their injuries, and doctors don’t always ask about abuse in the home. That failure of communication means the patients may miss out on the help they need. Yet a growing number of health providers and anti-abuse agencies in California and around the country are collaborating to identify victims and get them help. More doctors now screen their patients for signs of abuse and more agencies place victims’ advocates inside health centers.

• A sexually transmitted disease that may be infecting up to 700,000 Australians without them knowing is becoming so resistant to treatment it may soon become as great a health risk as chlamydia, doctors have warned. Mycoplasma genitalium is developing resistance to antibiotics at what health professionals say is an alarming rate.
• Griffith University has trialled a new webinar program, designed to increase awareness and understanding of the sexual desires of people with dementia, among aged care workers and other health professionals. The study was developed by Doctor Cindy Jones from Griffith’s Menzies Health Institute, and involved the evaluation of six, weekly interactive live webinars. The webinars looked at the expression of sexuality by people with dementia living in residential aged care facilities.
• Australia’s state and federal governments are being urged to follow in Canada’s footsteps and sue tobacco companies so they can claw back billions of dollars spent treating smoking-related illnesses. Health experts say while Australia led the world in introducing plain-packaging for tobacco products, smoking remains the country’s leading preventable cause of death and disease, with estimated annual costs of at least thirty $31.5 billion.  

• A group of elderly and bedridden residents will lose their homes just before Christmas as the scandal-plagued retirement village Berkeley Living in Patterson Lakes prepares to close. The closure comes after the owners of units in the village, who are financial victims of convicted criminal Stephen Snowden, were hit with threats of fines and building repair costs in excess of $500,000 by the City of Kingston in Melbourne’s south-east after the building was deemed “dangerous”.
• E-cigarettes and their potential health effects have been hotly contested for some time. Advocates say they are a less harmful alternative to tobacco cigarettes, and could help smokers quit, and, ultimately, save lives. But many Australian public health experts oppose the use of e-cigarettes, arguing there isn’t enough evidence to show they’re safe.
  Australia has long been considered a world leader in tobacco control — smoking rates have dropped by nearly 10% over the past two decades.
• Australian researchers are working on a revolutionary vaccine to help people in their fight against breast and gastric cancer. The vaccine, developed by Melbourne-based biopharmaceutical company Imugene, is designed to treat patients with higher-than-normal levels of the HER2 protein which can cause cancer to become more aggressive.

Overview

• Elderly people in regional Australia are on-selling prescription drugs to help pay their bills, the Rural Doctors Association has warned. Around 800 Australians die each year from prescription drug overdoses. The death toll is highest in rural and regional areas
• Research suggests that people who think positively have a better chance of recovering from serious illness than those who don’t.  A University of Sydney study indicates optimistic thinking has the power to speed up the recovery of sick people, including cancer patients.
• Fat women experience fat stigma through many avenues in their lives, and perhaps the most dangerous is the impact fat stigma has on their experiences with health care.

• Researchers have found the genetic cause of a blood-vessel disorder that can cause deadly bleeds and stroke. Scientists at University College London Institute of Child Health and Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) who led the study, called it an “enormous step” towards understanding and treating arteriovenous malformation (AVM). And they now believe targeted cancer drugs may be able to treat it. AVM, which usually worsens over time, can cause swelling and disfigurement. An AVM is an abnormal collection of blood vessels where high-pressure arterial blood feeds directly into low-pressure veins.
• A High Court judge has ruled that doctors in Liverpool can withdraw life-support treatment from a seriously ill toddler against his parent’s wishes. The parents of 21-months-old Alfie Evans wanted to take their son to Rome for treatment which they hoped would prolong his life. But specialists at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital argued that continuing to provide treatment was “unkind, unfair and inhumane”. Mister Justice Hayden, who visited Alfie in hospital ahead of his decision on Tuesday, ruled in favour of the hospital and granted it permission to withdraw treatment for the toddler.
• A second children’s hospital is reconsidering its decision to hand back a hefty donation from the Presidents Club in the wake of the harassment scandal, it is claimed. Evelina London Children’s Hospital may keep two six-figure donations it had previously vowed to return after concerns were raised that sick children could lose out. The change of heart follows a similar rethink by Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) which has revealed it is in discussions with the Charity Commission about the £530,000 it had collected from the disgraced club since 2009.