Category Archives: influenza

Is antibiotic resistance the “greatest failure of modern medicine”?

December 14, 2011 – 1:18 pm

(Following on from the previous post on infection control in hospitals.) The Centre for Research in Critical Infection held a meeting recently at the University of Sydney, where the threat of antibiotic resistance was a major topic of discussion. In the article below, the Centre’s director, Dr Jon Iredell, suggests that the lack of policy [...]

By Melissa Sweet | Also posted in infectious diseases, NHMRC, quality and safety of health care, swine flu | Tagged , | Comments (0)

A legacy of swine flu: guidelines for public health officials & journalists dealing with epidemics

July 25, 2011 – 6:17 pm

During the swine flu pandemic, journalists in the US became concerned about inconsistencies in how jurisdictions handled the release of information about H1N1 cases and deaths. According to the Association of Health Care Journalists (AHCJ), the disparate approaches – with some jurisdictions releasing specific information about the age, gender and residence of victims and others [...]

By Melissa Sweet | Also posted in infectious diseases, Media-related issues, public health, swine flu | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (3)

A quick wrap from the Australasian Cochrane Symposium

July 1, 2011 – 2:55 pm

Update, 5 July: The presentations and abstracts are now all available here. The symposium is underway today in Melbourne at the rather lovely Malthouse Theatre, with the theme Evidence, Communication and Impact. Below are some of the tweets from the symposium. Please note that this post does not intend to provide a full report on [...]

By Melissa Sweet | Also posted in Cochrane Collaboration, conflicts of interest, consumer health information, evidence-based issues, health and medical research, public health, quality and safety of health care, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Comments (3)

Influenza vaccination and children: weighing up the evidence

July 1, 2011 – 8:10 am

As has been widely reported, the Food and Drug Administration recently sent CSL a warning letter raising concerns about its manufacturing processes and the company’s investigation into problems with its influenza vaccine for children, Fluvax (which has been marketed in the US as Afluria). The letter, dated 15 June, asked for CSL to respond within [...]

By Melissa Sweet | Also posted in adverse events, child health, Hospitals, public health, quality and safety of health care, vaccination | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

Adverse events, vaccination and the case for a no-fault compo scheme

June 7, 2011 – 9:45 pm

The issue of adverse events associated with vaccination has been in the news recently following the release of the Horvath report, An investigation into the management of adverse effects associated with influenza vaccination of children (with the Panvax and Fluvax products). Meanwhile, a rapid online publication by The Medical Journal of Australia has called for [...]

By Melissa Sweet | Also posted in adverse events, child health, infectious diseases, legal issues, public health, quality and safety of health care, vaccination, vaccines | Tagged , , | Comments (8)

The latest update of health and medical news from The Conversation

May 30, 2011 – 10:47 am

In the latest update of health and medical news from The Conversation… Reema Rattan and Fron Jackson-Webb write: Here’s a taste of what The Conversation’s health and medical experts have said over the past two weeks: A licensing scheme to make smokers butt out for good By Simon Chapman, Professor of Public Health at the University of [...]

By Melissa Sweet | Also posted in adverse events, alcohol, Food, health reform, public health, quality and safety of health care, rural and remote health, tobacco control, Uncategorized, vaccines | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Temperatures soar in federal/states stoush over influenza vaccination

October 19, 2010 – 9:26 pm

Temperatures are rising in the stoush between federal and state health officials over who was to blame for an inadequate response when evidence began to emerge that young children in WA were suffering febrile convulsions after having the influenza vaccine Fluvax. As previously reported at Croakey, in August a report by a former WA chief [...]

By Melissa Sweet | Also posted in adverse events, child health, infectious diseases, quality and safety of health care, vaccines | Tagged , , , , | Comments (4)

An infectious diseases soup: whooping cough, swine flu and “Delhi belly”

October 18, 2010 – 7:59 pm

Below is a soup of infectious diseases – a bit of whooping cough mixed in with swine flu and finished off with a dose of “Delhi belly”… Are parents getting good advice on whooping cough? NSW Health recently issued a warning for parents to be on alert for whooping cough (pertussis) following an increase in [...]

By Melissa Sweet | Also posted in child health, infectious diseases, Journal articles, swine flu | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (4)

The job of specialist reporters: cutting the crap stories

September 10, 2010 – 4:11 pm

“If the specialist health reporter is a threatened species in traditional media, then so is quality media coverage of health issues.” So wrote University of Sydney researcher Dr Julie Leask today, when commenting to Croakey on a new study in which she and colleagues investigate the views and practices of journalists who were involved in [...]

By Melissa Sweet | Also posted in Journal articles, Media-related issues | Tagged , , | Comments (4)

Blaming the public for low swine flu vaccination rates is not fair, and not helpful

September 10, 2010 – 1:58 pm

Dr Julie Leask, a Conjoint Senior Lecturer at the Sydney Medical School at the University of Sydney, writes: A new report on the uptake of the swine flu vaccine shows what a few of us had predicted last year – that uptake would be low. The AIHW report shows that only 1 in 5 Australians [...]

By Melissa Sweet | Also posted in consumer health information, infectious diseases, swine flu, vaccination, vaccines | Tagged , , , | Comments (3)