Category Archives: Health

Aged care in the home improves lives and saves money. So why are Australians being made to wait?

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‘If you ignore people at a point where they really need some of that earlier intervention … then you’re up for a higher cost,’ says expert

Twenty years ago, Patrick Evans beat cancer. Now aged 76, the repercussions of the radiation treatment that helped him are setting in.

“He has very serious aspiration and that causes him pneumonia and that lands him in hospital on a regular basis,” his wife, Inda, said. “He had a very bad episode last year and was basically in a life or death situation.”

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UK sperm donations being exported despite 10-family limit

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Exclusive: Legal loophole means there is no restriction on making sperm or eggs available for additional fertility treatments abroad

Sperm donated in the UK is being exported and can be used to create large numbers of children across multiple countries, contradicting a strict 10-family limit that applies in the UK, experts warn.

A legal loophole means that, while a single donor can be used to create no more than 10 families in UK fertility clinics, there are no restrictions on companies making sperm or eggs available for additional fertility treatments abroad.

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US to survey dairy cattle brought to slaughter to study bird flu infections

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Regulators will inspect cows to see how widespread virus is and determine whether ageing and cooking inactivate it

The US will track bird flu infections in dairy cows brought to slaughter to understand the ways the virus infects meat and will also continue testing raw milk cheeses to see whether the virus is inactivated in the ageing process.

The renewed focus on the US food chain is the latest front in the effort to combat the infectious bird flu virus, or H5N1, which has triggered alarm bells across the world as a potential future pandemic.

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Failure to deal with mpox outbreak ‘is risk not just to Africa but whole world’

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Health leaders warn that global response to virus is test case for equity and preparation for future pandemics

A failure to show solidarity with African countries at the heart of the mpox outbreak will put the world at risk and harm preparations for future pandemics, health leaders have said.

The World Health Organization on Wednesday declared an international public health emergency in the face of rising cases that are spreading beyond the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where the virus is endemic.

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New York Planned Parenthood staff decry ‘devastating’ abortion service cuts

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Health non-profit’s affiliate announced changes for September, but staff say abortion access is already limited

In the coming weeks, Planned Parenthood’s Manhattan health center will stop offering core reproductive health services, including abortions after 20 weeks and deep sedation for procedures like abortion or IUD insertion.

The Manhattan clinic currently offers abortion through 24 weeks and is the only Planned Parenthood location in the state that does so. The group has been beset by financial challenges, and plans to close a number of New York clinics in the near future.

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Labour must raise GP funding to end ‘8am scramble’, says doctors’ group

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General practices forced to ‘do more and more with less and less’, says Doctors’ Association UK

Labour’s promise to “end the 8am scramble” for medical appointments will be impossible without increasing core funding for GPs, according to a leading medical association.

The health secretary, Wes Streeting, pledged during the general election campaign that Labour would “end the 8am scramble by allowing patients to easily book appointments to see the doctor they want, in the manner they choose”.

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Ambulances called to Amazon’s UK warehouses 1,400 times in five years

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GMB union urges Health and Safety Executive to investigate ‘shocking’ figures revealed by the Observer

Ambulances have been called out to Amazon warehouses more than 1,400 times in the past five years, the Observer can reveal. The figures, which were described as shocking by the GMB trade union, raise fresh questions about safety at the American giant’s UK workplaces.

Amazon centres in Dunfermline and Bristol had the most ambulance callouts in Britain, listing 161 and 125 across the period respectively.

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Gaza sees first polio case in 25 years as UN calls for mass vaccinations

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Highly infectious disease confirmed in 10-month-old as UN chief urges pauses in fighting to contain spread

Gaza has recorded its first polio case in 25 years, the Palestinian health ministry said on Friday, after the UN chief, António Guterres, called for pauses in the Israel-Hamas war to vaccinate hundreds of thousands of children.

Tests in Jordan confirmed the disease in an unvaccinated 10-month-old from the central Gaza Strip, the health ministry in Ramallah said.

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Chinese woman loses final appeal in her fight to freeze her eggs

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Beijing court rejects lawsuit brought by Xu Zaozao, who was seeking to widen access to fertility treatment in China

A Chinese woman who filed a groundbreaking lawsuit to win the right to freeze her eggs has lost her final appeal, exhausting the legal avenues in her fight to widen access to fertility treatment in China.

Beijing No 3 intermediate people’s court ruled that Xu Zaozao’s rights had not been violated when Beijing obstetrics and gynaecology hospital refused to freeze her eggs in 2018. Chinese regulations stipulate that assisted reproductive technology is only for married couples with fertility issues. Xu, now 36, said the doctor gave her some friendly advice instead: hurry up, get married and have children now.

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Global health charities warn of ‘huge and terrible’ threat to abortion rights if Trump returns

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‘Global gag rule’ and funding cuts will be ‘on different scale’ if Republicans win again, family-planning providers say

Providers of women’s healthcare around the world are preparing for potentially disastrous consequences should Donald Trump win the US presidential election in November.

Policies pursued during Trump’s last presidency caused “devastating” harm in a number of countries, said Beth Schlachter, a senior director at MSI Reproductive Choices in the US. It meant “clinics shuttered, health teams closed, women dying … but a second Trump term will be on a different scale”.

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Contaminated blood scandal payouts to start by end of year, says UK government

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Individuals could get up to £2.6m in compensation over blood products that caused HIV and hepatitis C

Victims of the contaminated blood scandal will begin receiving compensation before the end of the year, and some people will be entitled to more than £2.5m, the government has confirmed.

An outline of the long-awaited compensation scheme was set out in May, after the final report of the infected blood inquiry laid bare what Rishi Sunak, the then UK prime minister, called “a decades-long moral failure at the heart of our national life”.

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NHS plans review of adult gender services following Cass criticisms

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Workers in adult gender clinics allege ‘chaotic’ administration and ‘out of control’ waiting lists

The NHS has set out plans for a review into the safety of adult gender services, in response to detailed concerns raised by the author of the Cass report on gender care for children and young people.

Dr Hilary Cass, the leading consultant paediatrician, listed 16 separate points of concern about the quality of treatment being offered to adults with gender dysphoria in a strongly worded letter to NHS England.

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Mpox: Sweden confirms first case of ‘more grave’ variant outside Africa

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Clade I case comes after World Health Organization declares a global public health emergency

Sweden confirmed its first case of the more contagious variant of mpox, a viral infection that spreads through close contact, marking the first time it has been found outside Africa.

The person was infected while in a part of Africa where there was a large outbreak of the disease, Olivia Wigzell, director-general at the Swedish public health agency, told a press conference.

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UK’s National Crime Agency says it is ‘not scared’ of PPE Medpro’s lawyers

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Agency says long-running investigation into company run by Tory peer Michelle Mone’s husband will be concluded as quickly as possible

The National Crime Agency has said it is “not scared” of lawyers acting for PPE Medpro, the company led by the Conservative peer Michelle Mone’s husband, Doug Barrowman, and is progressing an investigation into it “as fast as we can”.

The NCA is conducting a long-running investigation into suspected criminal offences committed in the procurement by PPE Medpro of £203m of government contracts to supply personal protective equipment during the Covid pandemic.

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Canberra Health Services apologises for video that left endometriosis advocates ‘appalled’

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ACT government organisation deletes video that said endometriosis and arthritis were not conditions appropriate for emergency department

Canberra Health Services has removed a video it acknowledged was “not well executed and open to misinterpretation” after “appalled” advocates of endometriosis accused the government organisation of diminishing the acute pain of people living with endometriosis and arthritis.

The video, intended to provide an overview of how emergency departments worked as part of a larger health literacy campaign, has since been deleted from Canberra Health Services’ Instagram account. It is still visible on ABC News.

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Mpox outbreak in Africa is public health emergency, declares WHO

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Outbreak resembles early days of HIV, say experts, urging accelerated access to vaccines and testing

An outbreak in Africa of mpox, the disease formerly known as monkeypox, resembles the early days of HIV, scientists have said, as the World Health Organization declared it a public health emergency.

The declaration must accelerate access to testing, vaccines and therapeutic drugs in the affected areas, medical experts urged, and kickstart campaigns to reduce stigma surrounding the virus.

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Australia looks to modernise organ donation laws to keep pace with scientific advances

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Exclusive: Mark Dreyfus cites strong support from states and territories to update human tissue laws last reviewed almost 50 years ago

Australia’s definition of death is holding organ transplantation back from using the most up-to-date technology and achieving the best outcomes.

On Thursday the government will announce it will establish an Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) inquiry looking to modernise human tissue laws last comprehensively reviewed almost 50 years ago.

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‘Alarming’ surge in mental ill health among young people in face of ‘unprecedented’ challenges, experts warn

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Insecure employment, climate crisis and social media are driving ‘dangerous’ decline, research finds

Intergenerational inequality, unregulated social media, wage theft, insecure employment and the climate crisis are driving a “dangerous” and “alarming” global surge in mental ill health among youth, a consortium of health experts has warned.

There is an urgent need to address these driving factors and improve mental health treatments to stymie rates of premature death, disability and lost potential, all of which have escalated over the past two decades, the research from The Lancet Psychiatry Commission on youth mental health found.

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Nottingham attack preventable if NHS had ‘done its job’, health secretary says

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Wes Streeting says victims ‘might still be alive’ if health service had recognised Valdo Calocane’s risk to others

The health secretary said “three innocent people might still be alive” if the NHS had “done its job” in treating Valdo Calocane in the years running up to the Nottingham attacks.

Wes Streeting said the deaths of Grace O’Malley-Kumar, Barnaby Webber and Ian Coates were “preventable if the NHS had been there when it should have been”.

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A study has been scathing about toddler foods in Australian supermarkets. Which products can parents trust?

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These 70 items meet WHO standards for nutrients such as protein and do not exceed limits for sugar, salt and fat, researchers say

Infant and toddler foods are a rapidly expanding market in Australia – but a study this week found none of the infant or toddler food products stocked in Australian supermarkets meet World Health Organization standards.

The entire category of toddler foods has been accused of being an unnecessary marketing exercise as nutritional guidelines say children do not require special foods once they are 12 months old and can eat the same as the rest of the family.

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