Category Archives: Health

Father of Indigenous man who died after incorrect diagnosis tells inquest ‘hospitals are not safe for us’

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Family members pay emotional tribute to Ricky Hampson Jr, ‘Dougie’, who died less than 24 hours after leaving Dubbo Base hospital

Family members have described an Aboriginal man who died after an incorrect diagnosis at Dubbo hospital as the “favourite” child and the “light of every celebration”.

Ricky Hampson Jr, known and referred to as “Dougie” throughout the inquest, died on 16 August 2021, less than 24 hours after leaving Dubbo Base hospital, after being “erroneously” diagnosed with a drug-related illness.

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‘Hypervaccinated’ man reportedly received 217 Covid jabs without side effects

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German man, who said he had vaccines for ‘private reasons’, suspected of selling certificates to people who didn’t want jab

A German man who voluntarily received 217 coronavirus jabs over 29 months showed “no signs” of having been infected with the virus that causes Covid-19 and had not suffered from any vaccine-related side effects, according to a study published in the medical journal Lancet Infectious Diseases.

The 62-year-old, from Magdeburg, Germany, whom doctors described as “hypervaccinated”, said he had had the large number of vaccines for “private reasons”, according to the researchers from University of Erlangen-Nuremberg who examined him.

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Companies portray menopause as ‘medical problem’ and push women towards ineffective treatments, papers find

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Medical researchers in US, UK and Australia point to healthier menopause perspectives in lower-income countries

Many companies have a commercial interest in portraying menopause as a “medical problem,” leaving women inundated with misinformation and pushed towards ineffective treatments, a series of papers published in international medical journal, the Lancet, has found.

The findings have prompted leading doctors and researchers – including those from the US, UK and Australia – to jointly call for a societal shift that challenges inaccurate assumptions.

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Drug that could slow womb cancer to be rolled out by NHS in England

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Dostarlimab or Jemperli, an immunotherapy used alongside chemotherapy, could extend life expectancy

A drug that could improve the quality of life of hundreds of women with womb cancer will be rolled out on the NHS across England from Tuesday.

Dostarlimab, also known as Jemperli, is an immunotherapy that works by attracting specific proteins on the surface of cancer cells to help the immune system attack them.

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Cancer warning after big rise in people smoking pipes, shisha and cigars in UK

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Greatest increase in non-cigarette tobacco in past decade was among young adults, researchers say

The number of people smoking pipes, shisha and cigars in the UK has risen fivefold over a decade, and experts say this could lead to a rise in smoking-related cancers such as mouth and lung cancer.

Last year there were about 772,800 exclusive non-cigarette tobacco users, compared with 151,200 in 2013, according to a study published in the journal Nicotine and Tobacco Research.

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France makes abortion a constitutional right in historic Versailles vote

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Eiffel Tower lit up to mark change, seen as way of protecting law that decriminalised abortion in 1975

The French parliament has enshrined abortion as a constitutional right at a historic joint session at the Palace of Versailles.

Out of 925 MPs and senators eligible to vote, 780 supported the amendment, which will give women the “guaranteed freedom” to choose an abortion.

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First over-the-counter birth control pill in US to go on sale later this month

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Opill is being shipped to retailers and pharmacies, and its arrival on shelves comes at a deeply fraught time for reproductive rights

Opill, the first birth control pill approved for over-the-counter distribution, is now being shipped to retailers and pharmacies, the company behind the pill, Perrigo, announced on Monday. It will be available in stores and online later this month.

The Food and Drug Administration approved Opill last year, paving the way for the United States to join the dozens of countries that have already made over-the-counter birth control pills available. Opill, which works by using the hormone progestin to prevent pregnancy, is meant to be taken every day around the same time and, when used as directed, is 98% effective.

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Catalan pharmacies hand out free reusable period products

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Move by Spanish regional government to tackle period poverty will benefit about 2.5m people

The Catalonia region in Spain has begun providing free reusable menstrual cups, period underwear and cloth pads at pharmacies, in one of the first initiatives of its kind in the world.

The programme is part of a drive by the regional government to reduce period poverty after a survey found 44% of women using menstruation products in Catalonia could not afford their first-choice product and 23% said they had to reuse items designed for single use.

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Screen time robs average toddler of hearing 1,000 words spoken by adult a day, study finds

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Research into 220 Australian families over two years concludes exposure to television, phone and other screens hinders young children’s language skills

The average toddler is missing out on hearing more than 1,000 words spoken by an adult each day due to screen time, setting back their language skills, a first-of-its kind study has found.

The research, published on Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association (Jama) Pediatrics, tracked 220 Australian families over two years to measure the relationship between family screen use and children’s language environment.

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Telstra apologises to family of Victorian who died during triple zero outage

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Government says regulator is looking into the disruption which prevented more than 100 calls being transferred to emergency services

Telstra has apologised for a technical issue that meant Australians were not able to speak to trained triple zero call takers for more than an hour.

The telecommunications giant issued the apology to people who were unable to make phone calls to triple zero for more than an hour on Friday morning.

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Australia ‘horrified’ by Gaza humanitarian catastrophe – as it happened

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This blog is now closed.

Both sides of politics are pulling out all the stops as the Dunkley byelection goes down to the wire.

Speaking on Sunrise this morning, the education minister, Jason Clare, and the deputy opposition leader, Sussan Ley, went head-to-head over a tweet she published last night.

You should delete the tweet… This is a classic example of why women aren’t joining the Liberal party and why they’re not voting for the Liberal party, because of that classic, desperate, grubby political scare campaign we saw from the Liberal party yesterday.

I don’t know, really, you must wake up in the morning, look in the mirror and think, after 25 years of being a member of parliament, is this what I’ve become? I’m reduced to putting out tweets like this?

Anyone who watched question time during this week and saw your hopeless immigration minister unable to demonstrate that he even knows where his criminals [are], what they’re doing, who’s monitoring them and whether the community is safe, would probably not agree with what you’ve just said.

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Oprah Winfrey announces she is stepping down from WeightWatchers

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Talkshow host says she will donate all her shares ‘to eliminate any perceived conflict around her taking weight-loss medications’

Oprah Winfrey announced she was leaving WeightWatchers on Thursday and giving away all her stock – a move that follows the TV talk queen revealing that her recent dramatic weight loss was due to taking new weight-loss drugs.

A statement from Winfrey issued by the company said that the talkshow host, a public face for WeightWatchers since 2015, would donate all her shares in the company to the National Museum of African American History and Culture “to eliminate any perceived conflict of interest around her taking weight-loss medications”.

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Questions raised about whether GPs will be ready for influx of people seeking vaping prescriptions

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Doctors admit helping patients quit vaping is a ‘new experience’ ahead of a near-total ban coming into force on 1 July

GPs are preparing for a rush of patients seeking prescriptions for vapes or help to give up smoking, with a peak doctor’s lobby admitting it is a “new experience” for some medical experts ahead of new government vaping crackdowns and a near-total ban on electronic cigarettes from July.

The health minister, Mark Butler, says there is a need to “upskill” some GPs to help Australians off vapes. The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) says doctors are well-equipped to handle the looming changes, which will outlaw vapes without a prescription, but the head of the Australian Medical Association says it may be a difficult task.

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‘No intention of stopping’: New Zealand online vape seller vows to ignore Australia’s new import ban

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Health department rejects seller’s taunt ‘new rules don’t apply to us’ and points to ‘escalated enforcement action as appropriate’

A New Zealand online vape seller is taunting the Albanese government over its vaping reforms, telling customers “we have no intention of stopping” vape shipments because of “one twat in Canberra”, presumably in reference to the federal health minister, Mark Butler.

From Friday, importation of vapes to Australia is banned unless an importer has a licence and permit. Prescription vape importers and manufacturers also need to notify the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) of their product’s compliance with standards.

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Assisted dying law may soon diverge across British Isles, MPs warn

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Parliamentary inquiry highlights likelihood of Scotland, Jersey or Isle of Man passing new laws

Laws to allow assisted dying may pass in Scotland, Jersey and the Isle of Man in the next few years, leading to a divergence between different parts of the UK and British Isles, MPs have warned.

The government must consider the repercussions of this, a parliamentary inquiry into assisted dying has said.

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NHS waiting lists falling but will stay above pre-Covid levels until 2030, IFS says

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Length of time patients must wait for A&E care, diagnostic tests, cancer care and surgery will remain high, report predicts

The NHS hospital waiting list will be falling “consistently” by the time of the general election but will remain even larger than it was before Covid until 2030, a new report predicts.

In potentially good news for Rishi Sunak, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said the waiting list for operations in England is expected to “start to fall consistently but slowly from the middle of 2024”, during the months leading up to the election, which is widely expected in November.

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New online tool reveals how much Australian aged care homes spend on food, care and services

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Anika Wells says ‘Dollars to Care’ tool which allows users to compare homes on key metrics will ‘hold providers to account’

Aged care residents and their families will be able to see exactly how their home spends their money on food, care and services through a new online tool the Albanese government says will hold providers to account for how they spend taxpayer money.

The government is also using increased levels of data about aged care homes to monitor whether providers are passing on the full wage rise granted to staff by the federal government.

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Deadly experiment? UK asylum sites criticised for ‘horrific’ level of despair

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Critics of the government’s mass housing plan say it won’t save public money and at worst put asylum seekers at risk of suicide

Twice in January, ambulances rushed to the former RAF airbase at Wethersfield in a remote part of Essex, now the Home Office’s biggest mass asylum accommodation site, to attend to suicide attempts. On each occasion, an asylum seeker was admitted to hospital. Both survived.

Acts of self-harm have been common since part of the 325-hectare (800-acre) site, which first opened in 1944, started to be used to house refugees in July 2023.

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People in 20s more likely to be out of work because of poor mental health than those in early 40s

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Resolution Foundation report calls for action as number of young people experiencing poor mental health increases

Young people are more likely to be out of work because of ill health than people in their early 40s, a report calling for action on Britain’s mental wellbeing crisis has found.

People in their early 20s with mental health problems may have not had access to a steady education and can end up out of work or in low-paid jobs, the Resolution Foundation research revealed.

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Newsom launches abortion ads in Republican states to fight ‘war on women’

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Series of new advertisements target Republican efforts to criminalize abortions and a ‘war on travel’ for reproductive care

California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, is launching a series of new advertisements in Republican states targeting Republican efforts to criminalize having an abortion and “a war on travel” for reproductive care.

The first advertisement by Campaign for Democracy, Newsom’s political action committee (Pac), will air this week in Tennessee, where lawmakers are considering legislation that would make it illegal for anyone who helps a minor obtain an abortion without permission from their parents. Anyone found guilty of the offense could face between three and 15 years in prison.

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