The Health News Australia March 16 2018

• A decade-long study has found that young women and girls are being hospitalised for self-harm at 4 times the rate of boys. In the largest Australian study of intentional child-injury hospitalisations, from July 2001  to June 2012 there were 18,223 instances of children aged six to 16 admitted to hospital for self-harm. Over 10 years, 66 children and teens died within 30 days of being admitted to hospital, with a further 50 deaths attributed to an underlying cause of self-harm.
• Researchers from Melbourne’s Centre for Eye Research Australia (CERA) are currently trialling vitamin B3 supplements as a way to prevent or reverse blindness as a result of glaucoma. Glaucoma kills ganglion cells at the back of the eye that send messages to the brain. In previous studies, including one conducted in the United States, B3 was found to replenish the molecule that helps produce energy for those cells. It’s hoped the new trial will prove the vitamin could be used to support existing therapies for glaucoma, including eye drops and surgery.
• Restrictions on the sale of alcohol in the Northern Territory outback town of Tennant Creek have been extended after a spike in alcohol-related crime, particularly domestic violence. NT Attorney-General Natasha Fyles says the restrictions which limit the sale of takeaway alcohol from 3pm to 6pm and ban selling on Sunday, will remain in place until June. Ms. Fyles said the restrictions were urgently needed for the wellbeing of the community
  

News on Health Professional Radio. Today is the 16th of March 2018. Read by Tabetha Moreto.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-13/report-on-child-self-harm-rates-of-hospitalisation/9543706

A decade-long study has found that young women and girls are being hospitalised for self-harm at four times the rate of boys. In the largest Australian study of intentional child-injury hospitalisations, from July two thousand one to June two thousand twelve there were eighteen thousand two hundred twenty three instances of children aged six to sixteen admitted to hospital for self-harm. Lead author Rebecca Mitchell from Macquarie University’s Australian Institute of Health Innovation found young women had the highest rate of hospital admissions due to self-harm.

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Over ten years, sixty six children and teens died within thirty days of being admitted to hospital, with a further fifty deaths attributed to an underlying cause of self-harm. The authors wrote that
common risk factors include exposure to self-harm by friends and family members, substance abuse, along with mental health conditions such as depression. Experts found most kids did not seek help for the problems they were having before self-harming.
….
The report found the vast majority of boys who are admitted to hospital are victims of assault — either by schoolmates or family members. However, the rate of boys harming themselves has increased by two point five percent a year over a decade.
….

Self-harming children and teens were more likely to be from urban areas and a lower socio-economic background. Miss Mitchell said a national strategy to prevent injuries, including self-harm, in Australian children was needed.

https://www.9news.com.au/health/2018/03/13/13/54/common-vitamin-could-halt-glaucoma

A vitamin you’ve probably got in your bathroom cupboard could help treat glaucoma, a devastating eye disease that affects three hundred thousand Australians. Researchers from Melbourne’s Centre for Eye Research Australia (CERA) are currently trialling vitamin Bthree supplements as a way to prevent or reverse blindness as a result of the disease.

Glaucoma kills ganglion cells at the back of the eye that send messages to the brain. In previous studies, including one conducted in the United States, Bthree was found to replenish the molecule that helps produce energy for those cells. It’s hoped the new trial will prove the vitamin could be used to support existing therapies for glaucoma, including eye drops and surgery.

Research Fellow Doctor Flora Hui said in an official statement: “Our study hopes to confirm that vitamin Bthree can protect nerve cells from dying, in a similar way that adding oil to a faulty car engine can still allow it to run more smoothly.”

The trial could be a game-changer for the sixty million glaucoma sufferers worldwide.
Locally, the cost of the disease on the nation’s health care system is expected to spike to four point three billion dollars in the next seven years.

http://www.news.com.au/national/breaking-news/alcohol-limits-continue-for-tennant-creek/news-story/c1c1c898f1c1a1245f2b2b2aee94bec6

Restrictions on the sale of alcohol in the Northern Territory outback town of Tennant Creek have been extended after a spike in alcohol-related crime, particularly domestic violence. NT Attorney-General Natasha Fyles says the restrictions which limit the sale of takeaway alcohol from three pm to six pm and ban selling on Sunday, will remain in place until June.
Miss Fyles said the restrictions were urgently needed for the wellbeing of the community
….
The extension of restriction comes after the chief minister announced on Monday an extra seventy five auxiliary police officers will be trained as liquor inspectors and posted in front of bottle shops across the NT to help combat violence. Chief Minister Michael Gunner said: “We are tackling alcohol-fuelled crime and violence head-on because Territorians deserve safe communities.”

The government will provide almost twelve million dollars in annual funding for the unit which will allow frontline police to return to core policing roles. The extension of liquor restrictions has the backing of the Central Land Council which earlier this month called for restrictions to remain in place until a permanent solution could be found.