The Health News Australia August 7 2017
Overview
- Adelaide’s Women’s and Children’s Hospital is “escalating” efforts to stop smokers gathering near one of its entrances, after a series of complaints from families with sick children. While there are signs asking people not to light up near the children’s entrance on Kermode Street, families say they are being inundated by a cloud of smoke when they arrive.
- The whole city of Sydney is in the midst of an illness crisis with a sharp rise in the number of flu cases over last year and thousands struck down with gastroenteritis in the last week alone. Flu watchers have said it’s not just kids and the elderly that have to watch out, younger, healthier people are being whacked hard this year too. It could end up being the worst flu season on record.
- Up to half of Australians sleep poorly on a nightly basis and their twenty four seven lifestyle, love affair with technology, anxiety, insomnia and undiagnosed medical conditions are mostly to blame. Sleep deprivation is causing more people to seek treatment in hospital.
News on Health Professional Radio. Today is the 7th of August 2017. Read by Tabetha Moreto. Health News
The Women’s and Children’s Hospital is “escalating” efforts to stop smokers gathering near one of its entrances, after a series of complaints from families with sick children. While there are signs asking people not to light up near the children’s entrance on Kermode Street, families say they are being overwhelmed by a cloud of smoke when they arrive. Amie Cottrell made a written complaint to the hospital after visiting several times with her children. She said that just going across the pedestrian crossing you’ve got no choice but to walk through cigarette smoke and it was a health risk and it made her worried about other children. Bins for cigarette butts are attached to signs metres from the hospital’s main entrance and the pedestrian crossing connecting the car park.
Miss Cottrell said they attracted smokers to the area instead of deterring them and her frustration on social media attracted hundreds of comments from people sharing her concerns. “Some people said their children were on oxygen machines and they had to walk through the smoke just to get to their appointments,” she said. “There are people with children with asthma, cancer, respiratory problems, or other breathing problems. “It’s not a dig at smokers, but I don’t think it’s appropriate for families with sick children to walk through there.” Miss Cottrell said a smoking ban should be implemented along the street. The hospital’s executive director of corporate services Phil Robinson said after a series of complaints from members of the public, the hospital was planning to “escalate” its response to try and keep smokers away.
The whole city of Sydney is in the midst of an illness crisis with a sharp rise in the number of flu cases over last year and thousands struck down with gastroenteritis in the last week alone.
It’s a city with a collective snotty nose and upset belly. “There’s a saying that goes ‘if you’ve seen one flu season, you’ve seen one flu season’,” Kim Sampson, CEO of the Immunisation Coalition told news.com.au. “In terms of flu, in sheer numbers, now it’s New South Wales. It will come as no surprise that the chilly winter nights may be partly to blame. What may be more surprising, however, is that this winter’s lack of rain may also have played a role. Far from soggy conditions helping a virus do it’s worse, the opposite is true in most parts of Australia. The cold and dry Sydney weather is creating the perfect storm to rev up the virus. And flu watchers have said it’s not just kids and the elderly that have to watch out, younger, healthier people are being whacked hard this year too. It could end up being the worst flu season on record.
On Thursday, New South Wales Health said there was a thirty four per cent increase in viral gastroenteritis notifications across the state over the previous year. More than one thousand nine hundred people had attended New South Wales emergency departments with gastro in the past week alone — more than four hundred of those admitted to hospital. Coupled with that, New South Wales Health has also said there had been a “marked increase” in presentations to emergency departments for pneumonia and influenza-like illnesses including fifty three critical care admissions up to July thirty.
More than eleven thousand influenza cases were reported in the state in July with a “spike” in aged care facilities, the Government department said. Doctor Vicky Sheppeard the Director of the Communicable Diseases at New South Wales Health said that each year more than eight hundred people die in New South Wales from complications associated with influenza. She also that “we are seeing high levels of both influenza A and B strains circulating in the community and older people are more susceptible to severe infection from the influenza A strain that is circulating.”
Up to half of us sleep poorly on a nightly basis and our twenty four seven lifestyle, love affair with technology, anxiety, insomnia and undiagnosed medical conditions are mostly to blame.
Not getting enough shut-eye is a huge public health issue that we keep turning a blind eye to, according to experts, and it’s increasing our risk of heart disease, obesity, diabetes and depression. Sleep deprivation is causing more people to seek treatment in hospital, turn to cognitive behaviour therapy and hypnotherapy, and sign up for home-based sleep studies in order to change their behaviour and catch the quality sleep they require. Doctor David Hillman, a sleep physician at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and deputy chairman of the Sleep Health Foundation, said the problem was right up there with national health issues such as smoking, alcohol consumption, sensible diet and exercise — it’s just not as visible.
He said that sleep is a state that breaks into all of our organs. Its fingers stretch widely and impact on a lot of health issues and as a nation, we are undisciplined about creating good sleep routines. “Some people wear short sleep as a badge of honour, but it’s not smart or tough to go without sleep”, he also states.
Sleep Clinic Services chief executive Brett Chamberlain said snoring, waking up tired, daytime sleepiness and mood swings were warning signs that your sleep was impaired.
A quarter of working Australians may take one sick day per month as a result of poor sleep, according to a recent survey. One in three Australian adults suffers from some sort of sleep-disordered breathing.
“Anyone with concerns about their sleep should ask their GP for a sleep study referral,” Chamberlain said.
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