Left Field

Headline: Flu scare triggers rash of fake drugs

Sydney Morning Herald - online.  Kate Benson, Louise Hall and Jonathan Dart . 5 May 2009.

People are paying up to $150 for fake Tamiflu, the drug used to treat swine flu victims, because they are frightened pharmacies will run out of supplies if a pandemic hits.

Spam emails for the fake drugs, which are being sold on the internet, have become more common than those for erectile dysfunction and preyed on people who did not realise that Tamiflu would be distributed free if a pandemic was declared, the Pharmacy Guild of Australia warned yesterday. "No one can be sure where these sites are but some of the emails are even coming out of places like Mexico, which is ludicrous because they don't have any supplies of the drug," the guild's president, Kos Sclavos, said yesterday.

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Headline: Swine flue concern eases

Australian Financial Review, pg 5. Sophie Morris. 4 April 2009.

Yesterday Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon announced that no cases of the H1N1 swine flu had been confirmed in Australia, however the Federal Government continues to prepare for a possible outbreak. Elsewhere, Mexico’s Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova has announced that fewer serious cases of the swine flu were being reported each day. On the weekend, the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said the current virus did not contain the traits which made the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic so deadly, however the World Health Organisation has warned that there was no room for complacency given such viruses were unpredictable.

Headline: Emergency powers ready as flu fears grow

Australian Financial Review, pg 3. John Breusch and David Clampa. 29 April 2009.

Health Minister Nicola Roxon has announced that she has called on Governor-General Quentin Bryce to ensure that chief medical officer Jim Bishop is able to enact emergency powers after suspected cases of swine flu in Australia rose to 80 last night. Elsewhere, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has updated its travel warnings to Mexico, while the World Health Organisation has raised its alert level to level four. According to New Zealand Health Minister Tony Ryall, a group of Auckland students who had tested positive to the virus were receiving treatment with the Tamiflu anti-flu medication. Fears of a pandemic have aided the health care sector, with shares in Biota Holdings, supplier of antiviral drug Relenza, and CSL both rising. However, shares in Qantas Airways remained steady in spite of a slight gain in the S&P/ASX 200 Index.

Headline: Sperm registry and turnoff for potential donors

The Daily Telegraph - online. Kate Sikora. 20 January 2008.

Controversial plan for a sperm and egg donor registry has sparked concerns donations will end and women will be forced into one night stands to conceive.

Under new State Government regulations for the fertility industry, a database containing highly confidential and sensitive information about donors will be handled by government staff.

Headline: Vicks bad for youngsters, study finds

The Sydney Morning Herald, 14 January 2008, Nick Miller (online)

The popular remedy for snotty kids, Vicks Vaporub, could be bad for young children.

Research published by the American College of Chest Physicians has found Vicks may clog a young child's airways by increasing mucus production and slowing its removal.

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Headline: Internet stimulates elderly

The Australian, 13 January 2008, Xanthe Klenig (online)

Searching the web may be more beneficial for the brain that reading a book, scientists say. Researchers at the University of California at Los Angeles measured a two-fold increase in brain activity among the websavvy compared with internet novices in a study of the elderly.

Team leader Dr Gary Small said the results encouraged the idea that computerised technologies may have benefits for middleaged and older adults.

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Headline: Skilled nurses to be replaced by cheaper alternatives

The Sydney Morning Herald, 19 December 2008, Louise Hall, p.3

Registered nurses will be replaced by cheaper, less-qualified nurses and unqualified assistants, in the latest round of cost cutting by the State Government.

The plan to substitute university-trained registered nurses with enrolled and trainee nurses contradicts a $1.2 million study commissioned by NSW Health last year, which found that increasing the proportion of less-qualified staff in hospitals caused a range of preventable complications and deaths.

Hospital managers have been ordered to save $32 million within four years by downgrading nursing cover at small and rural hospitals.

Headline: Healthy spending on mega-hospitals

The Australian Financial Review, 9 December 2008, Robert Harley, p.46

Bovis Lend Lease (BLL) has been awarded the contract to manage the design and construction of Queensland Health’s $1.55 billion Gold Coast University Hospital. BLL is currently managing the design and construction of the $1 billion Royal Childrens Hospital in Melbourne. Queensland also has two other hospital projects underway - the Queensland Childrens Hospital in Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast Hospital.

Headline: Jenny Craig expansion

The Australian Financial Review, 9 December 2008, Mark Fenton-Jones, p.44

Jenny Craig has reached its 25-year milestone. The Australian weight-loss company started in Melbourne in 1983 with nine centres and presently has 660 centres worldwide.

Headline: The long and the short of it is, we’re coffee addicts

The Australian Financial Review, 17 November 2008, Ashley Midalia, p.3

Australia is a nation of coffee addicts and there’s no sign the economic downturn is going to force consumers to kick their coffee addiction. Dion Cohen of Surry Hills caf Single Origin Roasters in Sydney’s inner east says, people can’t go to work without it. It’s a drug.’