Category Archives: Health

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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Inquest into Melbourne influencer’s death following freebirth halted after new phone evidence discovered

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Coroner tells inquiry new material ‘of such significance’ any findings must be postponed so information can be analysed

The closing submissions in an inquest into the death of a woman who gave birth at home with no support from medically trained health workers has been delayed, after new evidence came to light after a forensic analysis of her mobile phone.

Stacey Warnecke, a 30 year-old nutritionist, died on 29 September in Frankston hospital in Melbourne.

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Recently single Australian men are seven times more likely to report a suicide attempt, study shows

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Fathers particularly affected, with almost 15% reporting suicidal plans after relationship breakdowns, according to survey of 20,000 men

Men who have recently gone through a breakup are seven times more likely to report a suicide attempt than those who haven’t, a new study shows

The Ten to Men project has followed more than 20,000 Australian men and identified the mental health risks in relationship breakdowns, which can include changes in their contact with their children, in their finances, and in their support network.

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Sierra Leone’s first lady refuses to condemn FGM without ‘reliable data’ on harms

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Exclusive: health professionals, survivors and politicians voice concerns in open letter over comments by Fatima Maada Bio, who denies supporting the practice

The first lady of Sierra Leone has denied that she supports female genital mutilation amid rising anger around her perceived approval of the practice.

But in an exclusive response to the Guardian, Fatima Maada Bio, the wife of President Julius Maada Bio, also said she would not openly condemn FGM until she saw “reliable data” that the practice was harmful.

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Lack of learning-disability nurses in UK is an ‘absolute crisis’, says union

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Exclusive: Royal College of Nursing says 1.5m vulnerable people not getting the right care, as specialism is ‘consistently undermined’

The specialist learning-disability nurse workforce is in “absolute crisis” with the number of specialist nurses falling by a third across the UK since 2009, leaving many vulnerable adults with inadequate care, according to a report by the largest nursing union.

The Royal College of Nursing review revealed that the number of learning-disability nurses employed by the NHS has fallen from 7,083 in 2009 to 4,768 in 2026. As a result of these falling numbers, 1.5 million people with learning disabilities were not being provided with their legal right to equitable access to health and care services.

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Birthkeeper hired by woman who died after freebirth tells inquest she was ‘not there to make a birth safer’

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Emily Lal – paid $6,000 to provide freebirth support package to Stacey Warnecke – tells coroner her role was primarily to be a ‘supportive friend’

A birthkeeper hired by a woman who died after giving birth at home has told a coroner that she was “not there to make a birth safer”.

Emily Lal gave evidence on Tuesday at the inquest into the death of 30-year-old Stacey Warnecke, who died on 29 September in Frankston hospital after giving birth at home with her husband and Lal present.

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Dangerous hormone-disrupting chemicals found in US breast milk samples

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Study of mothers in Seattle underscores ‘widespread, systemic problem’ of chemical contamination, experts say

Breast milk samples from mothers in Seattle contain alarming levels of dangerous hormone-disrupting chemicals, including BPA, BPS, melamine, cyanuric acid, and triclosan, new peer-reviewed research has found.

The chemicals present a serious risk to infants because they likely interfere with hormones that are critical to newborns’ proper development, and have been found to be harmful at very low levels of exposure. About 92% of 50 samples were contaminated with at least one of the anti-microbials or plasticizers for which researchers checked.

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Antidepressants and antipsychotics could serve as alternatives to opioids, study finds

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Medications that target depression, anxiety and poor sleep could help treat pain without opioids’ addictive properties

A range of other medications could serve as alternatives to powerful opioids for pain relief in emergency departments, according to a new study.

The review paper examined non-opioid medications available in the emergency department at San Francisco general hospital and examined existing medical literature to figure out which ones might provide pain relief.

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Trial of 12mph bike lane speed limit grinds gears of Dutch cyclists

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Increase in road deaths amid rise of e-bikes prompts Houten to test willingness of freedom-loving cyclists to slow down

As road deaths increase and cycle lanes overflow with e-bikes, the Netherlands is considering a cycling speed limit of 12mph (20km/h).

The government has started a two-week trial in Houten, near Utrecht, to gauge whether freedom-loving Dutch cyclists are willing to slow down – and whether they have any idea how fast they are going in the first place.

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NSW lifts drone ban over Sydney beach after shark attack – as it happened

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This blog is now closed

The Senate will deliver its report from the NDIS inquiry on Tuesday. Butler doesn’t directly answer a question about whether or not he is willing to make any significant changes to the legislation the government has put forward.

He says:

Look, the direction of travel I think is an important one for us to follow through. This largely reflects reviews and insights that we’ve gathered over the last three years since the independent review was done of the NDIS in 2023 and endorsed by all governments at national Cabinet later that year.

I’m utterly convinced this is the right plan for the NDIS… I’m not saying there won’t be any change. We heard ideas from the crossbench in the debate in the House of Representatives. I’ve very much heard that people want greater reassurance about what won’t change because of the reforms we’re putting in place.

We have to constrain that growth. Without reforms it would grow to $20 billion by the end of the decade and that’s simply not a sustainable position.

It’s also allowed us, as I said, to protect the core supports people rely upon for that safety that was part of your introduction.

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Angus Taylor using NDIS cuts as ‘pawn in bigger chess game’, Mark Butler warns

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Opposition and Greens could team up to extend inquiry into changes but health minister ‘utterly convinced’ federal government’s plan is right

Mark Butler has doubled down on his plans to pass contentious NDIS changes as early as this month, warning the opposition against using the bill as a “pawn in a bigger chess game” as they consider a potential deal with the Greens.

The Coalition and the Greens have criticised Labor’s truncated timeline to pass NDIS, negative gearing and capital gains changes, and have signalled they could team up against the government in the Senate to extend inquiries into the bills.

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Lupus patients in England in remission after pioneering NHS trial of GM therapy

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Doctors say therapy that genetically modifies person’s T-cells could offer cure for chronic autoimmune disease

Five lupus patients in England are in remission after being treated with a revolutionary therapy that genetically modifies their own cells, in a medical breakthrough that could offer people a cure, doctors have said.

CAR (chimeric antigen receptor) T-cell therapy involves removing a type of white blood cell also called T lymphocytes, which are crucial for hunting out infected or damaged cells, and engineering them to spot and destroy disease. The T-cells are then fed back into the patient via an infusion to reset their immune system.

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UK school leavers and new students to be offered meningitis B vaccine

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One-off programme to begin in July after recent MenB outbreaks in Kent, Dorset and Berkshire killed three people

Teenagers in their final school year and young people starting university will be offered two doses of a vaccine to protect them against meningitis B, the government has announced.

The one-off vaccination programme, which will begin in late July, comes after an unprecedented outbreak of meningitis B in Kent earlier this year along with clusters of cases in Dorset and Berkshire that, together, led to the deaths of three young people.

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Richard Scolyer, cancer researcher and former Australian of the year, dies aged 59

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Scolyer, who did pioneering work on immunotherapy, was diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer in 2023

Prof Richard Scolyer, the world-renowned cancer researcher and former Australian of the year, has died at the age of 59.

Scolyer’s family shared a statement the eminent pathologist and melanoma expert penned before his final stages of illness.

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Record number of people waiting for NHS diagnostic tests in England

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One in five of the 1.92m patients on list wait longer than six weeks for tests such as CT and MRI scans, analysis shows

A record number of people are waiting for a diagnostic test on the NHS, triggering fears that delays in accessing CT and MRI scans could endanger patients’ health.

A total of 1.92 million patients in England are waiting to have a test to diagnose their illness such as by an ultrasound scan, assessment of their hearing, bone scan or various tests for cancer.

The diagnostic waiting list has grown by 500,000 since 2022.

It is 83% higher than before the Covid pandemic.

On current trends the waiting list will hit 2 million in March 2027.

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Ebola spread in central Africa could match 2014 record outbreak, US health officials say

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Modelling from US CDC shows Ebola spread could be on ‘dangerous trajectory’, but experts warn outbreaks can be very hard to predict

Central Africa’s Ebola outbreak could spread to be similar in scale to the worst outbreak in history, west Africa’s 2014-2016 outbreak that killed more than 11,000 people, according to a new analysis by US health officials.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Friday published a range of scenarios generated by computer models, from 10,000 cases to more than 20,000. In the west Africa outbreak, more than 28,000 cases were reported.

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Doctor’s ‘grossly irresponsible prescribing’ played direct role in two deaths, Tasmanian coroner finds

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Dr David Jackson gave ‘effectively an unlimited supply for a drug binge’ to one addict, inquest finds

A former medical practitioner who was the subject of multiple red flags played a direct role in the deaths of two patients through grossly irresponsible drug prescribing, a coroner has found.

Nicholas Brown, Matthew Winwood, Toni Wiki and Belinda Kemp, who were all drug dependent, died in Tasmania between September 2016 and August 2017.

In Australia, the Opioid Treatment Line is at 1800 642 428 or call the National Alcohol and Other Drug Hotline on 1800 250 015. In the UK, Action on Addiction is available on 0300 330 0659. In the US, call or text SAMHSA’s National Helpline on 988

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Hospitals in England ranking highly for empathy ‘have better patient outcomes’

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Research suggests NHS trusts with higher empathy ratings also benefit financially and have improved staff wellbeing

Patients and staff fare better at hospitals that rank highly on empathy, research suggests, with institutions also benefiting financially by spending less on agency staff, locums and consultants.

The finding comes from the first study to rate NHS trusts in England according to an empathy score that is drawn from information on the organisation’s culture, leadership behaviour and practitioner empathy, among other factors.

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Life-prolonging drug for advanced ovarian cancer gets go-ahead in England

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Elahere is first new drug for chemotherapy-resistant ovarian cancer to be approved by NHS for 20 years

Hundreds of women with hard-to-treat ovarian cancer can now be offered a new life-prolonging treatment, after NHS England approved its introduction. It is the first new drug for resistant ovarian cancer to be approved for more than 20 years.

Ovarian is the 18th most common type of cancer globally, affecting more than 300,000 women a year. More than three-quarters of patients are diagnosed at an advanced stage, making it harder to treat.

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