Over 60% of Australian adults are now overweight or obese, according to a report released today by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. The report, Key indicators of progress for chronic disease…
Australian researchers have shown for the first time that the number of girls presenting with pre-cancer cells on the cervix has dropped following the introduction of a wide ranging vaccination program…
British American Tobacco Australia has launched yet another attack on the Australian government’s plain packaging legislation. On top of its latest “Where’s the proof?” campaign, launched today, it is…
Public health experts have warned for more than two decades that climate change will harm human health. Initially their attention focused on “primary” health effects (e.g heat waves, bush fires and flooding…
Mobile phones are “possibly carcinogenic to humans”, according to a new report by the World Health Organisation’s cancer agency, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). The IARC classified…
Piping hot cups of coffee. A fat laden fried breakfast. Going for a run. Or maybe just going back to bed. There are plenty of claims about how you can cure a hangover. So, what’s the reality? If you’ve…
Australia’s medical schools need a 50% increase in federal funding to boost the proportion of places available to domestic students and reduce their reliance on international fee-paying students, the peak…
Coal seam gas is indeed a potential disaster if present attitudes and lack of regulatory control prevail. An important part of public health is to enact precautions based on potential impacts. The CSG…
Red meats and processed meats like bacon, salami and sausage are strongly associated with bowel cancer, according to the most authoritative study ever on the issue. The report by the World Cancer Research…
The marketing of public health messages can bear some disturbing similarities to the way the tobacco, alcohol and food industries go about promoting their products. Recent suggestions by the Cancer Council…
Certain drugs that target sleep disorders can also act as very effective anti-depressants, paving the way for new approaches in the treatment of major depression, according to a new paper by Australian…
Any parent would tell you that seeing children fuelling up on sugar-laden cake, lollies and soft drinks at a birthday party is a sure-fire recipe for a bunch of rampaging hyperactive kids. The connection…
One day in April, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research director Douglas Hilton called his communications manager, Penny Fannin, into his office. “He said he’d heard significant cuts were…
Convincing more Australians to get on a bike would undoubtedly deliver health improvements that come with reduced waistlines. But ditching bike helmets isn’t the answer. The health benefits of more cycling…
With epidemics of diabetes and obesity threatening to bankrupt state health budgets, governments need to broaden their strategies to encourage physical activity. Allowing cyclists to ride without a helmet…
Dean Faculty of Health Sciences and Professor of Vaccinology at University of the Witwatersrand; and Director of the SAMRC Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Analytics Research Unit, University of the Witwatersrand
Principal Medical Scientist and Head of Laboratory for Antimalarial Resistance Monitoring and Malaria Operational Research, National Institute for Communicable Diseases
Professor and Programme Director, SA MRC Centre for Health Economics and Decision Science - PRICELESS SA (Priority Cost Effective Lessons in Systems Strengthening South Africa), University of the Witwatersrand
Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne