At home, on the streets, across the world

Adolescence can be the best years of your life—exploring your freedom to think, party, travel. But it can also be the worst—accidental injuries, street crime, depression, stress, and putting on unwanted weight.

Melburnian George Patton explored these issues for the 2016 Lancet Commission on Adolescent Health and Wellbeing.

Wednesday evening George will join a panel of teen health experts for the Melbourne Conversations event The light and dark sides of adolescence for the World Public Health Congress in Melbourne on 5 April.

George is available for interview on how we can help our own children and our city’s children, survive and thrive through adolescence.

Other stories from the World Congress on Public Health include

Risky drinking; what’s making our teens fat; standing desks for schools; sun safety; and more

Researchers available for interview, contact Niall Byrne on 0417 131 977 or niall@scienceinpublic.com.au [Read more…] about Surviving the dark side of adolescence

• CT scans have raised kids’ cancer risks

• Sex after 65: sexual activity and physical tenderness are important to healthy ageing

• Are celebrities bad for your health? Just 12 per cent of star endorsements are for healthy choices

• Your phone could be telling you to eat more veggies

• Public health – enemies of the people?

Stories from the 15^th World Congress on Public Health
Monday 3 April 2017, Melbourne Convention Centre

@wcph2017 #wcph2017

 

More at www.wcph2017.com/media.php and @wcph2017 on Twitter.
Contact Niall on 0417-131-977, niall@scienceinpublic.com.au or Tanya on 0404-083-863 for interviews [Read more…] about Public Health Congress: Monday daily wrap up

• Public health – enemies of the people?

• Poor need not = unhealthy, making the world fairer through policies on eating, chronic disease and trade

• How to eliminate HIV and hepatitis B and C by 2030

• Is President Trump’s stand on free trade agreements good for public health

• We’re getting fatter and sicker

• Self-governance and health for Indigenous peoples

Monday 3 April 2017, Melbourne Convention Centre

Researchers at the 15^th World Congress on Public Health available for interview from Monday 3 April

More at www.wcph2017.com/media.php and @wcph2017 on Twitter.
Contact Niall on 0417-131-977, niall@scienceinpublic.com.au or Tanya on 0404-083-863 for interviews

[Read more…] about Public Health on Monday

Tuberculosis (TB) is treatable and preventable. So why does it still kill more than 4,000 people each day? And what do we need to do to end the epidemic by 2030? We need to talk about solutions on World TB Day, Friday 24 March 2017.

Tuberculosis was the leading cause of death in Australian 130 years ago. Rates have plummeted since then, from 1,200 per million to four per million for males and from 900 to two per million for females, thanks to better living conditions, antibiotics, TB sanatoriums, immunisation and better screening.

Globally, we’re gaining ground in the fight to end TB:

• Between 2000 and 2013, TB prevention, diagnosis and treatment programs saved an estimated 37 million lives.
• The TB mortality rate fell by 45 per cent and the prevalence rate by 41 per cent from 1990 to 2013.

TB can lie dormant and undetected for months. But a weakened immune system leads to infectious ‘active’ TB, with fever, coughing up blood, and weight loss, the last of which gave the condition its historical name, ‘the consumption’. It’s a far cry from the Hollywood or BBC versions of TB, such as Nicole Kidman in Moulin Rouge! elegantly dying while singing ‘Come what may’.  [Read more…] about 4,000 lives lost each day: ending the TB death toll

What is saving and taking women’s lives in 2017?

The global average life expectancy for a girl born today is about 74 years. That’s 20 years more than women born in 1960.

An Australian girl born today can expect to live to 84 years. She’s gained a decade since 1960. Life expectancy for our Nepalese sisters has doubled from 35 to 71 years.

Around the world there’s been a remarkable transformation in the human condition. It’s come from a host of public achievements, including the following:

• Improvements in living conditions in the early 20th century—better water supplies, sewerage systems, food quality and health education, have led to overall lower death rates and longer life expectancy at all ages.
• In Australia, childbirth is 10 times safer for babies, and in USA, childbirth is 100 times safer for the mums than it was 100 years ago.
• In Australia, we’ve seen a 95 per cent decrease in death rate for children aged zero to four years (including infants).
• We’ve seen an 80 per cent reduction in cervical and uterine cancer mortality.
• We have universal education for all children with no discrimination towards girls achieving their goals.
• The protection of human rights of women and girls are improving, though we have more to do.
• Women are less likely to die of breast cancer thanks to screening and improved treatments.

[Read more…] about Celebrating longer, healthier lives on International Women’s Day