Latest news with #healthtesting
Reuters
2 days ago
- Reuters
Australian health authorities call for infectious disease tests of children after man charged with sex offices
SYDNEY, July 1 (Reuters) - Australian health authorities are urging around 1,200 children in the state of Victoria to be tested for infectious diseases after police charged a childcare worker with dozens of sexual abuse offences. Police said on Tuesday that Joshua Brown, a 26-year-old Melbourne man, had been arrested and charged in May with more than 70 offences relating to eight alleged victims. The alleged victims were aged between five months and two years of age and attended Creative Garden Early Learning Centre between April 2022 and January 2023. Police said they had launched a significant investigation since Brown's arrest. Sex crime squad detectives concluded Brown had worked at 20 Melbourne childcare centres between January 2017 and May 2025, and were also investigating allegations of offending at a second childcare centre in Melbourne's north. Victoria's chief health officer, Christian McGrath, said 2,600 families had been contacted by authorities, with 1,200 children recommended to undergo testing for infectious diseases. 'This is another distressing element to the situation, and we're taking this approach as a precaution,' McGrath told a news conference. 'We do believe it's a low risk, but we want to offer this to provide assurance to the parents about the health and wellbeing of their children.' Police said the investigation was triggered by the discovery of child abuse material, not by a complaint made by a victim. Acting Police Commander Janet Stevenson said Brown was not previously known to police and held a valid permit to work with children, which has since been cancelled. Brown, who remains in police custody, will appear before the Melbourne Magistrates' Court on September 15. Stevenson said a suppression order on Brown's identity was lifted in order to notify parents with children in childcare. "We felt that it was really important. This is unique. It's very important to ensure that every parent out there that has a child in childcare, knows who he is and where he worked," she said. "It was an unusual decision but it is before the courts and so it is actually public knowledge."
Al Arabiya
2 days ago
- Health
- Al Arabiya
Australian nursery worker charged with raft of child sex crimes
Doctors urged that 1,200 Australian children get tested for infectious diseases on Tuesday after police charged a former daycare worker with dozens of 'deeply distressing' sex crimes. Victoria police said a 26-year-old man had been charged with more than 70 crimes stemming from alleged sexual assaults against eight children aged between five months and two years old. 'As you could imagine, this was deeply distressing for the families to hear,' police commander Janet Stevenson told reporters. The man worked at 20 nursery schools across the city of Melbourne between 2017 and 2025, Stevenson said. State chief health officer Christian McGrath said 1,200 children who may have come into contact with the accused should be tested for 'potential exposure' to infectious diseases. Authorities did not specify which diseases the children may have been exposed to but said they could be easily treated with antibiotics. 'We do understand that this is another distressing element to this situation,' McGrath, an infectious diseases physician, told reporters. State Premier Jacinta Allan said she was 'sickened' by the man's alleged crimes. 'They are shocking and distressing,' she told reporters. 'And my heart just breaks for the families who are living every parent's worst nightmare.'
Malay Mail
2 days ago
- Health
- Malay Mail
‘Deeply distressing': Australian childcare worker charged with over 70 child sex offences; 1,200 children urged to get tested
SYDNEY, July 1 — Doctors urged that 1,200 Australian children get tested for infectious diseases on Tuesday after police charged a former daycare worker with dozens of 'deeply distressing' sex crimes. Victoria police said a 26-year-old man had been charged with more than 70 crimes stemming from alleged sexual assaults against eight children aged between five months and two years old. 'As you could imagine this was deeply distressing for the families to hear,' police commander Janet Stevenson told reporters. The man worked at 20 nursery schools across the city of Melbourne between 2017 and 2025, Stevenson said. State chief health officer Christian McGrath said 1,200 children who may have come into contact with the accused should be tested for 'potential exposure' to infectious diseases. Authorities did not specify which diseases the children may have been exposed to but said they could be easily treated with antibiotics. 'We do understand that this is another distressing element to this situation,' McGrath, an infectious diseases physician, told reporters. State Premier Jacinta Allan said she was 'sickened' by the man's alleged crimes. 'They are shocking and distressing,' she told reporters. 'And my heart just breaks for the families who are living ever parent's worst nightmare.' — AFP
CNA
2 days ago
- Health
- CNA
Australian nursery worker charged with raft of child sex crimes
SYDNEY: Doctors urged that 1,200 Australian children get tested for infectious diseases on Tuesday (Jul 1) after police charged a former daycare worker with dozens of "deeply distressing" sex crimes. Victoria police said a 26-year-old man had been charged with more than 70 crimes stemming from alleged sexual assaults against eight children aged between five months and two years old. "As you could imagine, this was deeply distressing for the families to hear," police commander Janet Stevenson told reporters. The man worked at 20 nursery schools across the city of Melbourne between 2017 and 2025, Stevenson said. State chief health officer Christian McGrath said 1,200 children who may have come into contact with the accused should be tested for "potential exposure" to infectious diseases. Authorities did not specify which diseases the children may have been exposed to but said they could be easily treated with antibiotics. "We do understand that this is another distressing element to this situation," McGrath, an infectious diseases physician, told reporters. State Premier Jacinta Allan said she was "sickened" by the man's alleged crimes. "They are shocking and distressing," she told reporters.
New York Times
10-05-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Elizabeth Holmes's Partner Has a New Blood-Testing Start-Up
Elizabeth Holmes is in prison for defrauding investors through her blood-testing company, Theranos. In the meantime, her partner is starting one of his own. Billy Evans, who has two children with Ms. Holmes, is trying to raise money for a company that describes itself as 'the future of diagnostics' and 'a radically new approach to health testing,' according to marketing materials reviewed by The New York Times. If that sounds familiar, it's because Theranos similarly aimed to revolutionize diagnostic testing. The Silicon Valley start-up captured the world's attention by claiming, falsely as it turned out, to have developed a blood-testing device that could run a slew of complex lab tests from a mere finger prick. Mr. Evans's company is named Haemanthus, which is a flower also known as the blood lily. It plans to begin with testing pets for diseases before progressing to humans, according to two investors pitched on the company who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they had agreed to keep the plans secret. Mr. Evans's marketing materials, which lay out hopes to eventually raise more than $50 million, say the ultimate goal is nothing short of 'human health optimization.' A photo provided to potential investors of the start-up's prototype bears more than a passing physical resemblance to Theranos's infamous blood-testing machine, variously known as the Edison or miniLab. The device that Mr. Evans's company is developing is a rectangular contraption with a door, a digital display screen and what the investor materials describe as tunable lasers inside. Haemanthus says its device will test blood as well as saliva and urine. The marketing documents provided with the photo say there is 'no regulatory oversight — U.S.D.A. confirmed in writing.' It's not clear what the company means by that. A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Seth W. Christensen, said he was not able to confirm whether the agency had corresponded with Haemanthus. 'U.S.D.A. does regulate vet diagnostics,' including blood testing, Mr. Christensen said. Mr. Evans responded in an interview, 'When you're in stealth, you're trying to be in stealth. They aren't going to find anything associated with the name Haemanthus.' Mr. Evans sent a partially redacted document from the U.S.D.A. that said, 'It does not appear that the proposed product is within the regulatory jurisdiction" of the Center for Veterinary Biologics, which is a part of the U.S.D.A. Mr. Evans, the 33-year-old heir to a California hotel fortune who met Ms. Holmes while federal authorities were investigating her, has not publicly discussed the new venture. The documents indicate he has already assembled roughly 10 employees. He describes his employment on social media simply as working for a 'stealth start-up.' James W. Breyer, the well-known venture capitalist and early investor in Facebook, said his team had been asked to put in money and decided against it 'for many of the same reasons we passed twice on Theranos.' 'In diagnostics, we've long held that the difference between a compelling story and a great company lies in scientific defensibility and clinical utility,' he wrote in an email. If sequels are de rigueur in the so-called disruptive world of technology, this one is particularly bold. Theranos became one of the most celebrated start-ups in the globe last decade and attracted both big-time investors (Rupert Murdoch, Larry Ellison) and a board of advisers that included Henry Kissinger. Ms. Holmes, often clad in a black turtleneck that invited comparisons to the Apple founder Steve Jobs, was feted on magazine covers, and at the White House. Few knew that Theranos's technology could not diagnose hundreds of conditions it claimed it could. As was chronicled in The Wall Street Journal, a best-selling book, a podcast, television series and later criminal proceedings, Theranos was largely using third-party technology to run rudimentary assays — when it did any testing at all. Patients received false diagnoses. The company crumbled ahead of Ms. Holmes's indictment for fraud. Ms. Holmes, who has always maintained that she is innocent, was convicted of fraud in 2022 and sentenced to 11 years in prison. She is incarcerated in a Bryan, Texas, federal prison. Mr. Evans's idea for Haemanthus traces back at least a year and a half, when he incorporated the company in Delaware, according to public corporate filings. Documents filed in Delaware and Texas show that its offices have been at various addresses in the trendy South Lamar neighborhood of Austin, Texas, where Mr. Evans lives with his and Ms. Holmes's two children. Haemanthus began by soliciting $3.5 million in funding from friends and family and this spring began reaching out to other well-to-do backers in Austin and the San Francisco Bay Area for an additional $15 million, according to the investor materials. The billionaire Michael Dell's investment firm turned down the effort, according to two people briefed on the outreach. The one investor who could be identified in public records is Matthew E. Parkhurst, the part owner of a Mediterranean tapas bar in downtown Austin and other investments. Mr. Parkhurst did not respond to requests for comment. Much of the Haemanthus executive team hails from Luminar, a struggling self-driving car company where Mr. Evans worked for two years, according to his LinkedIn profile. Pet health care is the first market Mr. Evans's company aims to address. The start-up has thus far received one patent. According to the company's marketing materials and patent, the Haemanthus device will use a laser to scan blood, saliva or urine from pets and analyze the samples on a molecular level. In a matter of seconds, the marketing material said Mr. Evans's machine would be able to identify and qualify biomarkers such as glucose and hormones, and deploy what the company calls deep learning models to detect cancer and infections. Animal medicine has grown into a colossal industry as private-equity firms have increasingly acquired and consolidated independent veterinary practices. Pet cancer screenings alone are a multibillion-dollar market. Edgemont Partners, a health care investment bank, describes it as a 'recession-proof industry.' Haemanthus told investors that it had roughly two dozen advisers, including veterinarians and diagnosticians, though it did not name them. Haemanthus's materials say the long-term goal is to develop a stamp-size, wearable version of the product for humans. 'Based on our experience and partner input,' it says, that will require three years and $70 million. The investor presentation makes no mention of Mr. Evans's connection to Ms. Holmes.
