In the news November 2005
Our students and staff making the news.
HELPING HANOI
Hoc Mai
Source: New Idea, November 2005
It was the end of December 1975, just days after Cyclone Tracy had flattened Darwin, when my wife Wendy and I flew over rusty patchwork quilt of roofs to the overcrowded city of Qui Nhon, what was then South Vietnam.
RADIOACTIVE MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY OPENS UP NEW DIAGNOSTIC POSSIBILITIES
Professor Roach
Source: UniNews 18 November 2005
Inginuity and financial necessity have helped a team of physicists, doctors and engineers develop one of the world's first combined imaging scanners at the Royal North Shore Hospital.
HOSPITAL MOVES TO NEXT LEVEL
Dr Sue Page
Source Daily News (Tweed Heads), 29 November 2005
The NSW Minister for Health, John Hatzistergos, was in Murwillumbah yesterday to open Stage Two of the Murwillumbah Education Centre.
WITH EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE
Professor Christine Jenkins
Source:Sunday Territorian (Darwin), 27 November 2005
How would you feel if your child had to sit on the sidelines and watch playground games wistfully, because joining in might bring on an asthma attack? Asthma can be fatal, and parents all over Australia have to agonise as we have one of the highest rates of asthma in the world, with one in 10 people affected.
SMOKERS LOSING SLEEP OVER THEIR HABIT
Woolcock Institute
Source:Australian Medicine, 21 November 2005
In another blow to cigarettes, sleep and health experts are warning smokers that cigarettes are keeping them awake and they shouldn't use restless nights as an excuse to not quit. Researchers from Sydney's Woolcock Institute of Medical Research studied nearly 500 people aged between 14 and 84 years of age, and found interrupted sleep and sleep apnoea are very common among heavy smokers.
BREATHE EASY
Professor Christin Jenkins
Source:Sunday Times (Perth), 20 November 2005
Source:Sunday Telegraph (Sydney), 20 November 2005
Source:Sunday Mail (Adel) 1st ed., 20 November 2005
Source:Sun-Herald(Sydney), 20 November 2005
Source:Sunday Mail (Brisbane 20 November 2005
How would you feel if your child had to sit on the sidelines and watch playground games wistfully, because joining in might bring on an asthma attack? Asthma can be fatal, and parents all over Australia have to agonise about the situation above because we have one of the highest rates of asthma in the world, with one in 10 people affected.
EXPERT BRANDS MEDICAL CERTIFICATE CHANGES 'UNWORKABLE'
Professor Stephen Leeder
Source:Australian Doctor, 18 November 2005
Federal Government plans allowing employers to demand that staff produce a medical certificate every time they are off sick are likely to further burden the already overstretched GP workforce, it has been claimed. The controversial industrial relations reform was branded "totally unworkable" by Professor Stephen Leeder, dean of the faculty of medicine at the University of Sydney.
RISK OF HARM TO FOETUS
Dr Michael Cooper
Source: Sydney Morning Herald, 14 November
Source: Newcastle Herald, 14 November
Source: Townsville Bulletin, 14 November
Source: Courier Times, 14 November
Source: Daily Liberal (Dubbo), 14 November
Source: Launceston Examiner, 14 November
Source: Herald Sun (Melbourne), 14 November
Source: Canberra Times, 14 November
Source: Mercury (Hobart), 14 November
Source: Cairns Post, 14 November
Source: Burnie Advocate, 14 November
Source: Age, 14 November
Women trying to conceive or in the early stages of pregnancy should he cautious about their use of over-the-counter pain killers, an Australian gynaecologist has warned. Michael Cooper, of the University of Sydney, said research had shown women may be increasing their chances of miscarriage by taking non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as ibuprofen and aspirin, particularly around the time of conception.
FIRE SAFETY AND CIGARETTES
Professor Simon Chapman
Source:Mercury (Hobart) Letters, 12 November 2005
Attorney-General Phillip Ruddock (Letters, November 10) is poorly informed in claiming there is no evidence of effectiveness from North America regarding the introduction of reduced fire risk cigarettes. As author of the expert report on the subject for the Commonwealth Health Department, I can assure him that published tests by Harvard University researchers on these cigarettes from New York State have shown a dramatically reduced ability to start fires.
TRAINEES GET TASTE OF RURAL HEALTH ISSUES
Professor David Lyle
Source: Barrier Daily Truth (Broken Hill), 11 November 2005
Nine public health officers from Sydney are spending a week in Broken Hill to learn more about remote health, and after a couple of days one of the trainees said it had already been a real eye opener. Trish Mannes is one of the trainees taking part in a new initiative of NSW Public Health Officer (PHO) Training Program in which the trainees attend lessons and site visits organised by the Broken Hill University Department of Rural Health and Population Health Division of the Greater Western Area Health Service.
WHY 2 MILLION SLEEP POORLY
Associate Professor Martin Weltman
Source:Herald Sun (Melbourne), 7 November 2005
New research has discovered that heartburn disrupts the sleep of up to two million Australians. The research, released for Sleep Awareness Week, is minored internationally through new research that shows about half of the heartburn sufferers across the globe were awakened by the condition an average of three times a week, for up to an hour each time..
HOW KYLIE'S DIAGNOSIS CHANGED A GENERATION
Professor Simon Chapman
Source:Sun-Herald(Sydney), 6 November 2005
Kylie Minogue may be battling cancer but her fans are fighting with her raising an unprecedented amount for money for breast cancer research. This year's Pink Ribbon appeal for the National Breast Cancer Foundation is expected to raise at least 20 per cent more than in previous years.
THE YEAR OF LIVING FEARLESSLY
Associate Professor Lea Williams
Source:Sunday Times (Perth), 6 November 2005
Remember swimming out beyond the breakers in the ocean, pedalling at a hundred miles an hour down a steep hill on your pushbike, or standing on a stage belting out a song in the school production of Oliver? When you're a child, life holds no obstacle or fear.
QUIETLY, SLOWLY, DEADLY
Professor John Prineaus
Source:Sunday Telegraph (Sydney, 6 November 2005
Rachelle Pynt (pictured) not only suffers from multiple sclerosis, but also from widespread ignorance about her condition. She tells how onlookers watch in disbelief as she pulls into a disabled parking spot, walks round to the boot, gets her wheelchair out and rides away.
HELP AT HAND FOR SNORERS
Professor Colin Sullivan
Source:Sunday Telegraph (Sydney), 6 November 2005
Snoring, sometimes reaching stentorian proportions, is know to cause insomnia and poor quality sleep in bed partners and even whole households in some cases. Such noisy breathing, even snorting, is not just an unpleasant night time affliction, it may be a symptom of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA.) Apnea means no breath and the problem occurs in sleep.
BURNING ISSUE IS TAKING A HEAVY TOLL
Professor Martin Weltman
Source:Sunday Telegraph (Sydney), 6 November 2005
Heartburn disrupts the sleep of up to two million Australians. Expert gastro-enterologists have identified the significant impact of heartburn on Australians' sleep and are calling for the condition to come under control to improve the quality of life for sufferers.
TEENAGERS IN GREATEST DANGER FROM CANNABIS-INDUCED PSYCHOSIS
Professor Ian Hicki
Source:Weekend Australian, 6 November 2005
From a mental health perspective it is timely to review the harmful effects of cannabis. The recent Not for Service report by the Mental Health Council of Australia highlighted that harmful patterns of drug use, particularly among young people, are placing great pressure on mental health services.
CIRCUMCISION EQUAL TO A VACCINE FOR HIV
Professor Brian Morris
Source:Australian Doctor4 November 2005
Circumcision offers the same level of protection against HIV infection in heterosexual men as a highly effective vaccine, according to a landmark study. In the first randomised controlled trial of its kind, researchers found circumcision provided 60% protection against the virus, confirming the results of a large body of observational studies.
FORTIFICATION FRUSTRATION
Professor Steve Leeder
Source:Medical Observer, 4 November 2005
It seems an age since we discovered that pregnant women with low folic acid levels had a far higher risk of having a baby with a neural tube defect. Since women started knocking back bottles of periconceptual folic acid supplements, the number of babies born with neural tube defects has fallen significantly.
RESEARCHER WINS MEDAL
Dr Bamini Gopinath
Source:Penrith Press, 4 November 2005
Bamini Gopinath recently won the first Bateman and Battersby Medical Research Medal for best emerging researcher at the University of Sydney Clinical School at Nepean Hospital. John Bateman presented her with the medal at the annual Nepean Scientific Day.