Category Archives: Health

Patient records stolen in cyber-attack on Australian healthcare provider

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Partnered Health says personal information and medical details and notes were breached in the attack on 21 clinics

Thousands of medical records and patient information stored with one of Australia’s biggest healthcare providers have been breached in a cyber-attack.

Partnered Health, owned by private equity firm Quadrant, said 21 clinics across several cities including Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra have been affected by the breach which occurred on 23 June.

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Australia news live: NT police still seek answers over 25 year-old murder of British backpacker Peter Falconio

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Bradley John Murdoch was convicted of 28-year-old’s murder but remains were never found

Northern Territory Police have opened evidence boxes to uncover several previously unseen photographs from the investigation of the murder of British backpacker Peter Falconio and attempted abduction of his girlfriend Joanne Lees.

Tuesday is the 25th anniversary of the infamous outback disappearance.

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US outbreak of parasite causing ‘watery diarrhea’ rises to more than 2,800 cases

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Cyclosporiasis outbreak comes a year after Trump officials cut funding for state and local health departments

State health officials in Michigan and Ohio are reporting thousands of cases of cyclosporiasis – a parasitic infection that causes “watery diarrhea”, loss of appetite and weight loss.

The outbreak of more than 2,800 cases comes a year after the Trump administration cut funding to state and local health departments and reduced the remit of a program dedicated to coordinating information on foodborne illness, including of cyclospora.

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Accused double murderer Beau Lamarre-Condon’s mother granted bail – as it happened

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This blog is now closed

Richard Marles said he doubted China tested the long-range weapon yesterday in response to Anthony Albanese being in the Pacific to sign a new defence alliance with Fiji but said Australia remained deeply concerned by the development. He told ABC News:

At the end of the day, what we’re seeing here is a long-range missile test from China, which China itself has said is nuclear-capable … This is China demonstrating a much greater range in terms of being able to deploy a nuclear weapon.

And ultimately what that is, is deeply destabilising.

Our fundamental issue in relation to China is that we have seen a very dramatic military buildup by China without that strategic reassurance [to our neighbours].

There really isn’t an explanation as to why they are building the capabilities that they are and that is fundamentally destabilising.

I think the system is handling the matter as it should … I think it’s appropriate that the legal process takes its course.

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Extreme high temperatures double young people’s risk of mental health admissions, Australian research shows

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Exclusive University of Sydney study finds heat-related hospital admissions to increase by 6% to 7.7% by the end of the century

Extreme high temperatures in warmer months double the risk of young people being admitted to hospital for a mental health condition, according to research.

The analysis, which looked at 720,000 New South Wales hospital admissions of young people aged up to 24, suggested the climate crisis would aggravate the already declining mental health of young people.

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Wegovy weight-loss pill goes on sale on UK high street and online pharmacies

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Thousands of people begin receiving their first deliveries of once-a-day medication made by Novo Nordisk

A once-a-day Wegovy weight-loss pill has gone on sale at high street and online pharmacies in the UK, but is not yet available on the NHS.

Thousands of people began receiving their first deliveries of the pill, made by the Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk, on Monday. It contains the same active GLP-1 ingredient as the Wegovy jab, semaglutide, and is similarly effective, according to studies.

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Sitting for more than 30 minutes at a time linked to higher risk of cancer death

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Study suggests even light activity such as ironing could reduce health risks linked to prolonged sedentary behaviour

Sitting for longer than half an hour at a time each day raises the risk of dying from cancer, a study suggests.

Researchers who tracked more than 90,000 people over a decade found that sitting or lying down while awake for more than 30 minutes in one period each day was associated with an increased risk of cancer death. The risk increases for every additional hour of continuous inactivity, the findings suggest.

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Canadian boy dies of rabies after waking to find bat on his face

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Eleven-year-old developed symptoms 19 days after encounter in Ontario in ‘exceedingly rare’ case

Doctors in Canada say a child who awoke to find a bat resting on his nose and mouth while visiting an Ontario cottage later died of rabies, in an “exceedingly rare case” that highlights the need for better public awareness.

In a report published this week in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, infectious disease physicians confirmed that the 11-year-old boy died from rabies, a fatality they said probably could have been prevented with greater awareness of how the virus is transmitted.

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‘Life-saving’ drug for people with opioid dependency to be pulled from Australia by end of year

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Exclusive: Fears that US companies may withdraw more medicines as global markets react to policy changes by the Trump administration

A “life-saving” drug heavily subsidised for Australians living with opioid dependency will be pulled from the market by the end of the year, causing alarm among doctors and pharmacists.

US pharmaceutical company Indivior confirmed the marketing and sale of the long-acting injectable prescription opioid Sublocade would end from 31 December, with a company spokesperson describing it as a “commercial decision”.

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UK poll highlights fears about access to emergency contraception

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Doctors say survey shows need for morning-after pill to be available at corner shops, petrol stations and supermarkets

Almost half of the UK population believe it would be difficult to access emergency contraception on a Sunday, while nearly two-thirds think they would struggle after 10pm, according to a survey.

The research, carried out by YouGov, found that only 7% of people believe it would be difficult to access emergency contraception during the daytime on a weekday.

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Women with irregular periods should be checked for PMOS, NHS says

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Polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome is underdiagnosed and inconsistenly managed, according to Nice

Up to 4 million women with irregular periods should be investigated for polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome, according to new NHS guidance.

PMOS, previously known as polycystic ovarian syndrome, is believed to affect up to 13% of reproductive age women, the World Health Organization estimates.

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One person a week in England dies with undiagnosed TB, study finds

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British-born, older men among those most likely to have disease found only postmortem, say researchers

One person a week dies with undiagnosed and therefore untreated tuberculosis in England, a study has found.

British-born, older men were among those most likely to have TB diagnosed only after death, researchers said, suggesting healthcare workers could be overlooking the possibility of the disease in these patients.

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Nigel Farage’s anti-WHO campaign moves to US with allies added to board

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Relocation of Action on World Health raises questions over why Reform UK leader is involved in a US pressure group

Nigel Farage’s campaign against the World Health Organization (WHO) is moving to the US with a new board of lobbyists, raising questions over why the Reform UK leader is involved in an American pressure group.

The Action on World Health campaign, co-founded by Farage, is relocating to the US state of Delaware as a charitable foundation and grassroots non-profit.

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Whereabouts of nearly 300 people with Ebola unknown in DR Congo

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Fears over ‘huge community transmission’ as modelling predicts thousands of deaths in DRC by September

The whereabouts of almost 300 people who have tested positive for Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is unknown, according to Africa’s top public health official.

The humanitarian crisis amid the conflict in the affected areas means more than 1 million people are living in camps to which health workers have no access, Dr Jean Kaseya, director general of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said on Thursday.

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Canadian healthcare staff decry ‘cruel hoax’ after scam email promises paid day off

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Unions condemn ‘insensitive’ internal cybersecurity test sent to healthcare workers in Newfoundland and Labrador

For years, healthcare staff in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador have felt overworked and underappreciated. Turnover, burnout and thinning resources were pushing workers in the sector to a breaking point.

So when the email titled “June Holiday” arrived in thousands of inboxes, they felt a moment of overdue joy.

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Brown skuas and giant petrels rarely make landfall. When they were found in WA, scientists feared ‘bad news’ for wildlife

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Experts thought H5N1 bird flu would more likely reach Australia’s north. But an arrival from Antarctica had always been possible

Brown skuas and giant petrels are a common sight offshore in southern Australian waters in the winter months, but they will rarely risk venturing on to land.

So when two of these birds were discovered sick – on beaches a few kilometres apart on Western Australia’s southern coastline – it was a sign something might be wrong.

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Australia news live: arrival of H5N1 bird flu a ‘genuine wildlife emergency’, experts say; fuel excise rebate extended for extra month

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Tram passengers in Melbourne will be able to pay for their trip using a bank card, smartphone or smartwatch from today.

The long awaited expansion of tap-and-go payments follows a staged roll out to the city’s train network and main regional routes. Buses are expected to follow.

From today, you can step off a train and straight on to a tram using the same phone, watch or bank card.

Four in five tap and go trips are already being made with a phone or smartwatch – showing more Victorians are leaving the wallet at home.

The potential for this virus to kill wildlife in significant numbers means it could be particularly catastrophic for threatened species.

We are talking about possible extinctions, alongside severe impacts to common birds like our beloved pelicans and black swans.

This is a genuine wildlife emergency and it must be treated as such with emergency funding to increase efforts to protect wildlife populations.

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Fears doctors criticising Israel may be silenced as health watchdog adopts contested antisemitism definition

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Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency to use International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition for ‘regulatory work’

Australia’s health watchdog has adopted a contested definition of antisemitism to guide its regulatory work.

The move has been welcomed by the nation’s peak Jewish body while the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network (Apan) has warned it could silence health professionals from criticising Israel’s human rights record.

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CDC to tap $107m in emergency funding for Ebola response in DRC and Uganda

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Number of people infected now tops 1,000 though health officials say the global risk remains low

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will tap $107m in emergency funding for Ebola outbreak response in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda, officials said on Thursday.

The continued Ebola outbreak in the DRC comes as Canada, Mexico and the US jointly host the Fifa World Cup, attracting visitors from around the world. The officials said the outbreak, now the third largest on record, required “strong immediate support”, but that the global risk remained low.

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