Posts tagged as:

pandemic

Indigenous News Update – Health

by Robbo on 22/09/2009

News

  • Breast screening at overload. Indigenous have lowest participation rates http://bit.ly/43CHRD

  • MJA article suggests more nicotine replacement therapies should be available for indigenous people http://bit.ly/1D6LW9

  • Chlamydia cases increased by 10% last year. STI rates in indigenous also higher than rest of population http://bit.ly/KDqlS

  • HIV infection among Aboriginal people was attributed to injecting drug use in 22 per cent of cases over the past 5yrs. http://bit.ly/1stayc

  • New 12 station renal unit under construction in Alice Springs.Boost capacity by 20% http://bit.ly/HN1Of -will border areas be given access?

  • Smoking is the single biggest factor responsible for the gap between the health of Indigenous and non-Indigenous people http://bit.ly/ezHNP

  • Qld Health spent $22k in accommodation for renal patient as no dialysis unit at home. Unit would cost $40k http://bit.ly/onOAz staff costs?

  • Anwernekenhe National Aboriginal &TI HIV/AIDS Alliance launched. to bring down Indigenous HIV rates http://bit.ly/FRsYm

  • National Indigenous Health Equality Council has first meeting with Snowdon, Minister for Indigenous Health http://bit.ly/pWubU

  • Indigenous pandemic protection ‘a long way off’ for South Australia’s Aboriginal communities http://bit.ly/Z3SOO

  • serious gaps in diagnosis & treatment of people at risk from heart attacks. Good news-Aboriginal people treated better! http://bit.ly/18JO96

The Indigenous News Updates are sourced from news and other articles from around the country that I have posted on Twitter. Image source: OpenClipArt.org, public domain.

If you like this post and what else you see on the blog please subscribe by RSS feed (the orange button) or by email. Visit my subscription page.

Tagged as: aboriginal, Aboriginal Health, breast screening, cardiac, dialysis, GP, heart attack, HIV, Indigenous, indigenous health, influenza, nicotine, nicotine replacement, pandemic, renal, Snowdon, treatment

{ 2 comments }

Does Influenza Vaccination provide any protection against H1N1?

by Robbo on 08/08/2009

Over at Croakey, Crikey.com.au’s health blog there is an interesting article on why submissions to the Victorian government on why proposals for developing healthcare identifiers and related privacy legislation should be public. One of the case studies used in his argument is the need to track any potential adverse effects from influenza vaccination, particularly H1N1.

One of the crucial requirements he states is to determine “whether or not the current vaccine for seasonal influenza affords any protection against the new H1N1 variant”.

My gut feeling from what I have seen is there is little or no protection. This also seems to be the results from a study reported in Eurosurveillance:

Interim analysis of pandemic influenza (H1N1) 2009 in Australia: surveillance trends, age of infection and effectiveness of seasonal vaccination

There was no evidence of significant protection from seasonal vaccine against pandemic influenza virus infection in any age group.

It seems we will be up for a huge vaccination effort (possibly two vaccinations, one month apart) from some time after October.

There is more information on the just received Promed email listing available through the International Society of Infectious Diseases. Look for “PRO/AH/EDR> Influenza pandemic (H1N1) 2009 (25): Australia, UK, updates” (note: later check shows linkbroken). Some of the links in the Promed e-mail are worth a look:

Blog Widget by LinkWithin

Tagged as: Crikey, Croakey, Eurosurveillance, H1N1, influenza, pandemic, swine flu, vaccination, vaccine, virus

{ 6 comments }